Are dogs really better then humans?

I love pets; dogs in particular. I have grown up with them all my life. I know their nature and agree they are the best companions. I’m not a cat person strictly because I am allergic to them. However, with the love of these animals in mind I still take a contrarian position when I hear animals are better than people.

First of all, I have been bitten badly by a dog. It was a simple miscalculation. I was in the home of this “animal” and it smelled my other dogs off of me. Instinctively it wanted to protect its territory and it lunged at me taking a chunk out of my shoulder. Now I hold no grudge, nor do I look less upon the species.

I constantly see things like:

Since animals can be loyal, full of personality, and of course loving, we tend to forget that human beings can be all of the above. We just forget that people can possess these positive qualities when we step back and see our bloody history.

I view animals as programmed. Sure it can be argued the same with human beings, but there are things that humans can just do better.

I have seen dogs become jealous, mean to each other, and perhaps even ravage at times. Animals have instinct and just because they have been domesticated (by us), doesn’t mean you have always taken the jungle out of them.

I had a friend who travelled to India, and all he could say was that the local monkeys were just evil selfish beings. To be honest I wasn’t surprised. We feel that evil is delegated only to human beings, and that some how the animal kingdom is somehow more knoble than us. We are taught that war and greed is not part of the animal kingdom. The truth is at least in my eyes that human beings at their inner core have struggled with the animal inside. It is the cause of war, jealousy, and greed.

Humans beings have developed strategies to keep the animal in check. We think anarchy could be the answer, but humans left unchecked will always maintain a majority to rule over the minority. Unspeakable crimes have been committed in lawless places. Call it instinct or the hierarchy of our being, without structure or control we run amok.

No, I do not believe animals are better than humans. Of course there are sick human beings who derive “pleasure” for hurting others. Could it not be said that some animals “toy” with their prey? Who is to say animals are strictly ruled by survival of the fittest. When I see animals snap at each other because they are jealous it really showed me that “evil” is not necessarily delegated to human beings.

In any case, I love my dogs. They are loyal and from the heart. They however are not human. We can rise above our natural instincts. We can even become spiritual and contemplate our existence. These are major differences between us.