11-Year-Old Boy Stops Traffic To Rescue Dog Hit By Car

[Are_grits_groceries]

You don't need to be big to be a big hero.

For example, 11-year-old Jean Fernandes, a brave boy from Brazil, recently risked his life to save a dog that had been hit by a car in Itajaí, according to Brazilian news site Guarda-Sol.

The injured dog remained in the roadway after the driver who allegedly struck it drove off. Jean then ran between oncoming vehicles to pick up the helpless animal and bring it to safety, Brazilian outlet Globo Rural reports.


Jean's mother, Rubia Liliana Rose, told BioBioChile that her son loves animals and will rescue ones he finds abandoned or abused.

"This little boy is already larger than many men," commented Aline Ropelli.
The dog -- identified as Honey, or Mel in Portuguese -- is still in the care of vets at a local animal control center but is doing just fine, according to BioBioChile.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/jean-fernandes-puppy_n_4420435.html

Kudos to you Jean Fernandes!

[KurtNYC]

1. Glad it wasn't "11-Year-Old Boy Stops Traffic To Rescue Dog, Hit By Car"

(added a comma)

[CFLDem]

14. +1

[Auntie Bush]

19. Excellent example of how important comas are to the meaning of a sentence.

[Hissyspit]

31. Anti-semicolonist!

[seabeyond]

30. i kept seeing it like that all day. didnt want to come in and hear a sad. here it is so late.

i finally had to find out how the boy was. then re read the title and realized it was talking the dog, not the boy. so i feel much better.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Recommended. (nt)

[HappyMe]

3. What a great kid.

Cutie pie doggie too.

[Eleanors38]

4. Good kid! Raised well.

[JNelson6563]

5. What a brave boy!

And adorable dog.

Julie

[Savannahmann]

6. Waiting for the law and order types to demand that the boy be cited

For jaywalking.

[magical thyme]

7. what a wonderful boy and cute (and lucky) doggie!

Well done!

[malaise]

8. Lovely

Rec

[awoke_in_2003]

9. The quality of the mother is evident...

this is a good kid.

[xchrom]

10. a Mensch. and that's very good thing to be. nt

[freshwest]

11. Great kid.

[silverweb]

12. Bravo!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Brave, kind-hearted boy!

[lupinella]

13. K&R

Love this kid!

[840high]

15. k/r

[BlancheSplanchnik]

16. :')

*sniffle*

[shenmue]

17. Brilliant!

Terrific story.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. I'm going to rain on this parade and say that feting him is highly irresponsible, I'm afraid.

Yes, it makes a good story, and it's a cute dog. And yes, I feel a bit of a grinch for attacking this. But:

Children should be taught *not* to risk their lives in traffic, even if they see an animal hurt out there. Children are more important than animals. And celebrating this boy for making the *wrong* decision and getting lucky will make it more likely that other children will try to emulate him and be killed, I'm afraid.

[LiberalElite]

21. What a sad comment -

That young boy will likely grow up to be a wonderful person because he cares about animals. Teaching him that he's more important will have the effect of squelching those priceless attributes of compassion and caring and kindness that should be celebrated and promoted. He could save a human's life some day maybe that would be more to your liking.

"If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."
- Francis of Assisi

Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality

"Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."
– Albert Einstein

"Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives."
~Albert Schweitzer

“We need, in a special way, to work twice as hard to help people understand that the animals are fellow creatures, that we must protect them and love them as we love ourselves.”
― César Chávez

"It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures."
~Mohandas Gandhi

"A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is a bad as an act of cruelty to a human being."
-Prophet Mohammed

[LisaLynne]

22. Thank you, nice rebuttal.

Kinder than I would have been.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

33. The only one of those quotes that is relevant is the last one, and it's bollocks.

Yes, compassion towards animals is a good thing. No, it's not as important as compassion towards humans.

Only the last quote you cite contradicts that point, and it's from someone who should never, ever be taken as a moral authority on any point. (I suppose one could just about make a case that Chavez's quote is also germain, but, again, it's wrong).

Consider the feelings of a child's parents if they are killed, let alone the feelings of the poor driver who has to live with having killed a child by accident.

And not risking your life to save an animal is nothing to do with active cruelty to animals.

[The Traveler]

35. And that is why we are living in the holocene extinction

I do kinda get where yer coming from but ....

Yes, my friend, animals are not as important as humans. And because they are not as important as humans, we kill them when we find it necessary, convenient, or profitable to do so. We do this by overt means, and we do this incidentally, Collateral damage. So sad.

And we find it necessary, convenient and profitable every day. So, with some seven billion of us sharing this amazing biosphere we call Earth, I guess it should not be surprising that we are witnessing an extinction rate that has not been experienced on this planet in 65 million years. Ya know. When the dinosaurs died off.

But hey! The good news is the extinction rate is picking up. We're ridding our biosphere of those less important animals at an accelerating rate. With anything resembling conventional attitudes and business practices, we should be able to exceed the extinction rate achieved by even the Permian extinction event.

The downside to that achievement, of course, is that at some point the biosphere ... the web of life that sustains us all ... becomes incapable of supporting human life, and we become one of the victims of our own priorities.

So I disagree with you. Strongly. Compassion should not be stifled by conventional wisdom and abstractions about the relative value of sentient beings based on their species. Just my opinion. And courage is, like any other skill, a learned capacity, and is never found without enduring risk. Should we instead train children to be dis-compassionate cowards? This kid acted from compassion and courage. He took a chance and got away with it and fulfilled his chosen purpose at that moment.

No one wants their kid to be hit by a car.

I don't want my kids growing up to be people who are incapable of exercising the qualities of compassion and courage. Personally, I think that would be the greater tragedy.

Just my take on it.

Trav

**edited because I never proof read before posting. mea culpa **

[niyad]

38. thank you for this. would you consider posting it as its own thread, so we can rec it?

[IronicNews]

41. Some drivers will kill dogs without worrying about it, but most will still stop for a child.

Plus he was a large kid and visible. It does not look like a superhighway. And at 11 years, I'm sure he didn't bolt into the street without regard to his own safety. He's not a toddler. The article said he 'stopped traffic'. I understand the comment about not wanting to have the child hurt, and found it difficult to swallow the part about a hierarchy of who deserves life ("humans more important"?) but there are lots of things to take into consideration here.

I love animals.

[niyad]

39. thank you.

[IronicNews]

40. Good points.

Agreed.

[flvegan]

23. Your concern is noted.

Fuck empathy, right? Let children be shitty, selfish robots like too many of their parents, leaders and alleged role models.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

32. What about empathy for the parents of children killed in traffic?

I think children should care more about the suffering their deaths would cause their parents (not to mention the driver who killed them by accident) than they should about the suffering of animals.

[nomorenomore08]

36. I suppose in a strict sense you're right. Literally considering animals "as important" as humans

is not possible, or arguably even advisable, from a practical standpoint.

But to leave the comments that you have in this particular thread, strikes me as a bit cold-hearted. From a certain perspective it almost resembles trolling.

[smackd]

25. he's 11, not 4

i imagine he's already been taught not to run into traffic. i wager he made an informed decision.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

34. The OP claims he "risked his life".

It may just be exaggerating for effect, but it may not be.

[tblue]

20. Such sweetness

Makes me teary. He's an angel.

[Stinky The Clown]

24. There is just something special about the connection of "man" with "best friend"...

... or in this case, "boy" and "new best friend."

[Blue Owl]

26. Bless him

[ReRe]

27. That young man....

.... is going to grow up to be a veterinarian. Or a movie star, with that cute face. Whatever, he's a hero in my book!

[Captain Stern]

28. "This little boy is already larger than many men"

That quote pretty much said in nine more words more than I could say with more. (Hell, it just took me more than nine words to basically say "I agree&quot

[Iwillnevergiveup]

29. Really appreciate this great story

and all the other heart-warming ones that appear on DU. It warms my heart that first of all, people do great services for animals, but then that they also get publicized. Very good for young people to see examples of compassion and empathy toward people and animals.

K&R

[niyad]

37. thank you for sharing that. a truly caring young person whose selfless act made my day.

[myrna minx]

42. Awww. K&R