re: OT, why do ya'll care more about dogs than humans?

'Compassion is the emotion that one feels in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help.'

You've never heard a dog cry because its owner cried? Never read stories of dogs risking and/or giving their lives to save humans or other animals? They will go through pain and suffering to make sure the ones they love don't suffer. A mother with a child in danger will do the same thing, and not for a second will she have to process a 'choice' about it. It is just in their nature as it is in ours. I would argue that is more special and more sincere than someone spending any amount of time making a 'choice' about compassion.

I've never had a dog that didn't display compassion. And it's not human influence that causes it. Wild animals do the same. They don't need to be trained or domesticated, though they do become more sensitive and enlightened in a sense by being more keen to how we domesticated creatures do things. Just as any human would be wild vs domesticated.