Major Brian Dennis adopted an abused mixed-breed dog in Anbar Province, Iraq. He named the dog Nubs because his ears had been cut off. Dennis nursed Nubs back to health over four months, but then he was ordered to move his squadron 70 miles away. Two days later, Nubs rejoined Dennis! The dog had tracked him down despite 18 degree weather and rough terrain. But the major received orders to get rid of the dog within four days or he would be shot. Dennis started an email campaign to save Nubs that raised three thousand dollars within a couple of days, and battled bureaucratic difficulties to get the dog out of Iraq across the Jordanian border. Nubs will be flown to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, where a fighter pilot will care for him until Dennis can come home. Link -via Arbroath
1. People should not be allowed personal time once they've joined the military.
2. People should not donate their own money to causes based on their personal conscience.
3. People with jobs should not have dogs.
4. Animal adoptions should ignore existing emotional bonds.
5. Rules and bureaucracy take precedence over human virtue.
6. Zoomzoom is the fascist.
First, the easy stuff: yes, the pack might dissolve, but the individual dogs don't just flop over dead because they lose the alpha. But that's not really the point: according to your logic, no stray dog should ever be adopted, because adoption always removes a dog from its current social structure. That's nonsense. (And you did, in fact, openly dismiss the abuse: "She’s been abused, but abuse happens to people all over the world" is a clear attempt to belittle the impact of abuse.)
From there, your comments leave the road entirely. This statement, "they know the consequences of their choice – whether it be post-traumatic stress or suicide or whatever," is galling to the point of incredulity. Do you really think that anyone who joins the military forfeits their right to pursue happiness? And that they simply have to resign themselves to the possibility of PTSD and/or suicide because it was somehow in the job description? And do you honestly think that someone at war needs to give up a dog in order to learn a childhood lesson about loss? You don’t think witnessing or even causing death teaches that lesson daily? Who ARE you? You show so little understanding, and so little compassion for either humans or animals, that my mind reels. You honor bureaucracy and petty rules above loyalty and compassion – and yet YOU pity ME. Baffling.
Yes, I have separated Nubs from strays, emphasis on strays. Not dogs in general. Because he isn't one; he was tamed. "That can't be helped" meaning the war cannot be helped but I think I'll retract that statement because I honestly don't have enough information to be a judge of that.
But I do see where you get your arguments from, just please respect my point of view and don't think that I haven't given thought to what I say.
I don't know why you think Nubs was so different from other dogs. You think only the most deserving dogs should be rescued? Okay, then go to every shelter in the world before you rescue a dog, and find the one that is the "most in need" of rescuing. Ignore the animal at your feet, and any emotional attachment you may have with it. Let that animal suffer or die while you head out to find another. In fact, give up the dog you’ve been caring for the past five or ten years to get one from a shelter, because the shelter dog is obviously in more need.
Look, if you want to operate from a position of logic rather than one of compassion, do so. But in your rush to trample love and loyalty, don’t forget to make sure your logic holds water.
But I'm glad that Dennis found some love during his time in Iraq. I just wish he didn't have to spend so much money on transporting Nubs to the U.S.
And please, this argument is about the moral opinions of people and not the persons themselves.