Empathy, yeah, but only if you have fur, feathers or fins...

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I was just reading another thread on empathy, and it reminded me of something that's been puzzling me for a while.

I have absolutely no empathy for human beings. I'm a good actress by now, and I can fake it tolerably well (I think), but I don't feel it. No matter what I think of, or how I try to put myself into the other person's place, I can't do it.

But give me an animal in distress, or in joy, and I can feel what they are feeling as if I had plugged directly into their brain. Maybe that's why I have so many animals. I relate to them so much better than I do with people, almost on a different level.

I have been this way as far back as I can remember.

Familiar to anyone?

I too feel more empathic towards animals than people but there are some people towards whom I can feel empathic not many though and not often but animals, yes especially cats

Humans don't have many reedeeming characteristics. As you know, tonnes of people love pets for that reason

Very very very familiar. Animals are my life. I've always had connection with them, in a way I've never had with any person. As a child growing up, I was closest to my dog who was like a sister to me. That may seem weird to some people, but when you can't understand/relate to people very well, but you're just as fascinated with exploring different interesting scents and sounds as the dog is, playing "pack" instead of "house" makes so much more sense.
I've also felt responsible for animals. I'm very patient with tending sick creatures, and my stress limit is far greater in doing something for the sake of an animal than for the sake of a person, even though I try to be patient with people I care about.
I wonder if it's just a maternal instinct gone wrong.

I have a higher stress tolerance with my cats than with people, when I got my younger cat he had difficulty using the litter box and I had to wipe his butt for about a week I didn't like it but I tolerated it.

I know exactly what you mean! I am the same way!!

eh... not me

I have very little sympathy for animals and just a little bit for humans. I guess I only empathize with myself because I only relate to machines.

I love animals and they don't seek out to hurt you.

After choosing to actually study people, how their minds operate, their responses to situations and the hypocrisy of social rules, I can now understand people better but I just still don't agree with them.

Learned that the majority of people actually have a lack of empathy for situations that they have not been through. Why else would breast cancer charities start from a person only after it hit home for them? Why else would autism charities form only after it hit home for them.

Learned people lack empathy for people that think differently. Some will have such a lack of empathy that it fuels their reasons for bullying and harassing.

Empathy however is present if the person can attach their own values onto someone else and if the other person is more like them. In that sense the person is treated with respect and dignity. If the person watches the same reality tv shows...bonus points! If not, the person may sneer and judge as if they themselves are judges on their favorite reality tv show.

True empathy is lacking in most people.

People only appear to have true empathy because people who are declared normal even though there still is no set definitions on normality have more people to choose from.

i have some sympathy for people and i don't like to see anyone get hurt. but an animal in distress bothers me much more than a person in distress. i hate seeing the wildcat in a cage in the zoo and it made me depressed, because he seemed restless and miserable. years later, i still remember it.
i like animals better than people, too. i think they're less selfish and more honest and loving than we are. when a person does something good, many times you don't know if it's out of the kindess and goodness of his heart or is he getting something in return. i've fed feral cats in my parents' yard and there was one blind kitten and they let him take food from their mouths, literaly. even though they were hungry themselves and my bigger cat let the smaller cat eat first and worried about her when she was sick. she put her head on his furry butt and slept in the evening and in the morning he stayed in the same place, same position. usually he would've gone to the water bowl, food bowl, the litter box. he didn't move all night.
i love animals and have little use for people, except my brother and his wife and three girls. i have a huge amount of sympathy for them and can't stand the thought they might be in pain, physical or mental.

My parents got me a black labrador for my 12th birthday. She was in my life for 11 months and I've never loved anything or anyone more than her. Just thinking about the day I had to bring my dog to the shelter because of my parents' divorce and the way she cried and knew what was happening once she heard the other dogs bark and her eyes, I could swear she had tears in her eyes, sets me off. She could sense my (and my mother's) sadness, it was the most painful thing I've ever seen.
I'd always thought 'feeling your heart breaking' was a load of BS, but I swear, I'm not being funny or corny, that day my heart broke. I felt physical pain in my chest and stomach and it wasn't just from crying. I had never felt that before and I haven't felt it since.

This is part of the reason I'm a Zoology major! I not only have more empathy for animals, but I tend to understand them and bond with them better. One example being my family's cat; we adopted her just before my sister's 16th birthday in July 2010 and within a week, she had adopted me! I'm the only one she comes easily to when she wants to cuddle or be pet, and my dad (another Aspie) is the only one who she will play with!

I think this whole subject smells of crypto misantropy, but in this case weeping dogs upset me more then weeping children.

You know what? Me too... The only time I cried over death was the death of an animal. I don't cry over humans dying or anything or I just force myself to cry just so that people won't think I'm disrespectful. I mean, my ex-boyfriend died last month, but I didn't even shed a tear.

Yes, definitely. I don't want to sound horrible, though. I do care about people, but I just don't get them.