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Perhaps I’m just a cruel, cynical human being, but every time I see those commercials I get so upset. With their depressing music, tear-jerking narration, and slow motion clips of sad-looking cute or wounded animals… I just can’t handle it! The fact that they keep airing this commercial is a disgrace to humanity. How can a person be SOOO STUPID as to fall for this junk?!
The ASPCA clearly preys on the emotions of people to get them to fork over their hard earned cash towards a “charity” that is completely worthless. “Every day, hundreds of animals die on the street having never felt what it’s like to be loved.” SOO?!?! THEY’RE ANIMALS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! They were born with natural predator instincts and are biologically designed to survive outdoors without human shelter! They don’t need your stupid liberal love!
Why would anyone fall for these ridiculously over-emotionalized and over-dramatized commercials and give $18 a month to this and similar organizations when there are children that don’t have food to eat!? If all the stray dogs and cats in the world had to die a horrible death in order to provide one starving homeless human with food and shelter then it is well worth it!
Is anyone else as infuriated by this as I am? People’s priorities are so messed up these days! To me it’s a sign Moshiach is around the corner.
Wow…what hatred…
Like any nonprofit organization, the ASPCA has every right to promote its mission, using whatever advertising it deems most effective. The ASPCA is not “tricking” anyone into giving up their money any more than any other charity is.
As for “liberal love” and what animals do or don’t need…no one is suggesting that animals have anything like a human consciousness. But they do feel physical pain and are capable of basic emotion. Several years ago, an elderly man in my neighborhood passed away. I went to pay a shiva visit to his widow and observed their dog in obvious distress, whining and pacing the house in search of the man. I heard from friends who also visited that the dog behaved this way all week.
Most importantly, animals are Hashem’s briyos. Where you spend your tzedakah money is your choice, but don’t knock those who make different choices.
It’s obviously serving its purpose, or else they would’ve changed it already.
Re Curiosity’s opening post: I agree that the ads you speak of are mawkish, and the cause they support – animal “rights” – is dubious, given the suffering of human beings of all ages around the world. But there is one ridiculous thought in your comment – that the ads are “liberal.” The ad is, for the most part, apolitical. And if the ad means Moshiach is near, let them run more ads.
Curiosity – Easy for you to say, you kill cats…
die on the street, lol
What is funny about animals dying on the street?
jewishfeminist02
where else would you rather they die?
in your bathtub?
Context. Know your audience. Stupid commercials are appropriate for reaching TV audiences.
Popa
Animals dying in the street is funny?
yitzchokm, animals “dying on the street” is not simply a description of the location of their death. It is also indicative of their lifestyle and cause of death. It means that the animal did not find a place with a family or even a shelter, and instead scavenged scraps on the street, was likely disease-ridden, and almost certainly died of starvation. What misery. Even those who do not prioritize helping these briyos when it comes to tzedakah should not laugh at their plight.
Animals die on the street all the time. Then the Vashta Nerada eat them.
In all seriousness, though, while I would personally not donate money to ASPCA (like the OP I would probably first donate to help people) it’s still not funny when something like they describe happens to an animal- the situations in their ads do actually happen. An elderly couple a few blocks away moved a few years back and abandoned their cat (I’m not sure why- I think they may have been moving to a pet-free facility or something). A (frum) family on their block eventually realized and took it in, but by that time it was skeletal and probably dying. An animal that’s been raised indoors by humans is not going to be able to survive on its own very easily- in fact, it may not at all.
ASPCA true story:
My then-husband was sleeping in the Sukkah one night (about 20 years ago), I heard and then saw a pack of dogs (yes, a pack) trying to get into the Sukkah,he was in a deep sleep, I called the ASPCA (from inside the house,obviously).They ANSWERED the phone, but told me they couldn’t help me UNTIL 9:00am!!
I told them it really urgent,but they couldn’t understand my concern for my husband who was after all,”sleeping in the shed”!!!!In the end—also true—I opened the window,splashed my only weapon (a cup of negel vasser water) out the window, and they scampered off!!
As they say,truth is stranger than fiction!
Stop judging those who choose to donate to the ASPCA. Just because you don’t care to donate, or your rav said not to, or whatever, doesn’t make it wrong for anyone else to do so (and just because it isn’t a mitzvah doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing, either). When the judgment goes away, I’ll believe that the hatred isn’t there. And YES I WOULD want to save an anthill. Part of the reason I am a vegetarian is that I have never understood why people make arbitrary distinctions among animals, e.g. dogs are our friends but chickens are our dinner.
JF02 -“understood why people make arbitrary distinctions among animals, e.g. dogs are our friends but chickens are our dinner.”
That’s Not true. Many places in the world Dog is on the menu.
I personally don’t eat Dog because it’s Not kosher. But I wonder what it would be like to eat a Hot Dog!
You only explained why we don’t eat dog. You didn’t explain why we do eat chicken.
What is funny about animals dying on the street?
Animals dying in the street is funny?
That it doesn’t matter at all if animals die in the street. Of course they die in the street–they also live in the street! Where would you want them to live? In a house? They don’t live in houses–they’re animals!
lololol
animals “dying on the street” is not simply a description of the location of their death. It is also indicative of their lifestyle and cause of death. It means that the animal did not find a place with a family or even a shelter, and instead scavenged scraps on the street, was likely disease-ridden, and almost certainly died of starvation.
lolol
Animals don’t need a home! They don’t need a human family! They are supposed to eat scraps. That is what they naturally do!
Did you hear about the poor deer? It lived in the forest without even a tent, and then it was murdered by a wolf and eaten alive! What a pity–lololol
My rosh yeshiva said it very simply – its not that we don’t care for animals. Animals are great. People are just better. I dont have a problem with the ASPCA – if their methods work its society’s problem for falling for it. That being said the Nazis yemach shemam were known for being very good to their animals as were some well known dictators. Vehamayvin Yavin. I do agree with Curioisity that we have to be very careful about where our morals come from as many of them may be from a place that is not kosher even if it makes us feel good. It is a very slippery slope.
Re comment by Just My Hapence: Best. Comment. Ever.
I don’t have the patience to read all of the comments but OP.. It is you who are a disgrace. Wow. I have no other words for you. Get a life.
This whole interminable thread was worth being brought into existence for just my hapence’s greatest CR comment EVER!
I don’t watch tv, so I’m not sure, but I don’t think those commercials are talking about animals who are just left alone to roam the streets, I think they are talking about animals who are affirmatively mistreated by their previous owners.
Most domesticated dogs and cats are bred to be pets. There aren’t supposed to be random dogs and cats roaming the streets. They belong in homes with people. For lack of a better term, they aren’t “naturally occurring” animals.
The ASPCA are hypocrites.
They ask you to bring in stray dogs so they don’t die on the street. Instead half of them are killed by the ASPCA itself.
I think given the choice of living on the streets or dieing in a shelter, most dogs would choose the former.
Animals raised in homes, without needing to provide for themselves, with a warm place to sleep and a nice bowl of pet food every day, are NOT necessarily going to survive if left on the street in the middle of the winter without a source of food.
But leaving that aside, nobody is asking YOU to donate money to the ASPCA or anywhere else. If anyone wants to, that’s their cheshbon, and I wouldn’t be too sure that person is getting an aveirah, either- it may not be on the level of real tzedakah for all I know, but the issur against tzaar baalei chaim is a real thing. Feel free to have better and loftier priorities than all the idiots who get suckered into caring about the welfare of these briyos- but what other people do with their money is truly not your concern.
Animals raised in homes, without needing to provide for themselves, with a warm place to sleep and a nice bowl of pet food every day, are NOT necessarily going to survive if left on the street in the middle of the winter without a source of food.
So they’ll die. That’s what happens to animals. They die. Sometimes you eat and sometimes you get eaten.
I’m not aware that the concept of not causing tzaar to animals includes going out and rescuing them from tzaar.
PBA: It’s a mitzvah to unload your or someone else’s donkey. Even your enemy’s donkey (Shmos 23:5). If you have a choice between loading one donkey or unloading another, you should unload the burdened donkey because of the issur of tzaar baalei chaim (I think it’s in Bava Metziya somewhere).
I understand that as mostly being to help the person. But silly to speculate when there are sources.
Curiosity:
“The fact that they keep airing this commercial is a disgrace to humanity. How can a person be SOOO STUPID as to fall for this junk?! The ASPCA clearly preys on the emotions of people to get them to fork over their hard earned cash towards a “charity” that is completely worthless.”
If that’s not hatred, I don’t know what is.
“The fact that they keep airing this commercial is a disgrace to humanity. How can a person be SOOO STUPID as to fall for this junk?! The ASPCA clearly preys on the emotions of people to get them to fork over their hard earned cash towards a “charity” that is completely worthless.”
If that’s not hatred, I don’t know what is.
I a bit disturbed your use of the word “hatred”. Who exactly are you accusing Curiosity of hating, and why?
The ASPCA and its supporters, as should be obvious.
The usage of capital letters, multiple exclamation points, and language like “SOOO STUPID”, “completely worthless”, and “junk”, in addition to the general hysterical tone of the posting, supports my conclusion.
I see him criticizing them strongly. I see him even calling them “stupid”. I don’t see it being motivated by hate.
I think you do diminish the harm done by true haters when you use hate to describe other things.
The ASPCA and other related organizations were around long before gay marriage became even close to being accepted. (1866, if you’re interested, in the case of ASPCA.)
I don’t think there’s a correlation at all between bestial (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) relationships and the ASPCA. That doesn’t even make sense. Does that mean people shouldn’t be allowed to have pets? Or, from a different tack, what about people who donate money to orphanages? (Fill in the blanks here.)
You have no way of knowing to whom people will donate if there is no ASPCA. For all you know, they may not donate money to any charity at all. Maybe they will, but YOU HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING. Your argument is the same one that people use to try to stop wealthy people from making big simchas and having big houses, but do you KNOW that they’d be donating all the money that they’d otherwise spend on them to tzedakah? No, you don’t. Don’t get mixed up in yenem’s cheshbon. We all have enough trouble with our own.
I am sure the ASPCA does not make juvenile character judgments of those who disagree with them. Passion can be expressed in many different ways. Some are polite and make the point without lambasting people; others are unedited and attack-based (btw, you want to talk about letting emotions control you? look to your own posting first).
Now PETA is another story. Please do not equate PETA with the ASPCA.
.??????-???? ???-?????????? ?????? ??????, ??????????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ?????????; ????? ??????? ??????????? ????????????, ??? ?????????? (Yeshayahu 1:11) To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the LORD; I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.
JF: What are you proving with that passuk? I’m sure you aren’t trying to prove that Hashem does not desire karbanos, since that would be kefirah.
Thanks for your concern for my neshama.
First of all, Hashem does not desire korbanos from us anymore, since we don’t have a Beis Hamikdash, and the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim even suggests that He will not desire korbanos from us in the future, when it is rebuilt. But all that is an aside, since it wasn’t my actual point.
Second of all, the pasuk is generally interpreted as saying that Hashem is not interested in our bein adam l’makom if our bein adam l’chaveiro is totally out of whack. (After some more hyperbole in the same vein as the first pasuk I quoted, the navi goes on to say ??????? ?????? ????????? ?????????, ????????? ??????; ???????? ??????, ?????? ?????????. Learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow).
I wasn’t concerned for your neshama. I was just making assumptions about it.
Hashem does not desire current korbanos, that is so. Rambam might suggest that Hashem will not want korbanos in the future, but most assuredly not because Hashem will have changed his mind about the morality of korbanos. Also, that Rambam is not at all the normative opinion, as we say in shmone esrei ???? ?? ?????? ????? ????.
Yes, that is the general interpretation. I see now. You are saying that we are not being nice and practicing bein odom l’chaveiro. I disagree, but I see the relevance of the passuk now.
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