Hiker killed and ate his German Shepherd to survive

Sorry to post something a bit off topic here, but am I the only one who keeps reading the title and misreads it as "Hitler killed and ate his German Shepherd"? I think I may need a break from these forums...

Anyways, as for the REAL story, this is ashame. But one must do what one can to survive. I guarantee you that if this person took the moral high ground and let himself starve, the dog would feast on him.

reply to post by boymonkey74

By the time provincial police airlifted him out three months later, Lavoie was barely able to speak or eat. He suffered hypothermia and dehydration and had lost about 90 pounds.

The dog would have saved him from hypothermia. It's what dogs do. I woke up one night once when the heat went out, with my dogs being blankets. It was -40 outside.


Dogs also dig up edible things to survive on. They kill little animals - mice, rabbits, slow birds, etc.

If this guy was an "outdoorsman", like the article said, why did he not know what types of things were edible in the woods?
Cdn forests are full of edible items. Pine trees, mushrooms, bugs, berries, dandelions, little critters....

If there was no water ( I guess he didn't stay near the river), he should have been able to start a small fire for the purpose of smoke. That would have been investigated - smoke coming from the forest.

I wonder how they finally found him?

reply to post by Beavers


i did the exact same thing!! why does it take a minute for the letters to appear after i type them? anyone else have this problem?

reply to post by snowspirit


Neither of us was there...you ever been starving? you don't think straight, lots of should have done this or that but we wasn't in the situation he was in, I doubt he was just peckish and thought "Oh I know I will eat my dog" he will never forget that dog and hate himself for eating it but he would have been dead without the meat.
I will pick a person everytime over any animal and Iam glad he ate his dog so he survived.
I bet his family are also.

reply to post by boymonkey74


well maybe he had too much squirrel and got tired of eating squirrel. couldn't have bashed in the skull of a hybernating whatever. a bear gets to that guy he's fuch'd

Couldn't do it, wouldn't want to, I'm a vagitarian.

reply to post by Beavers


I did the same thing. Weird.

HUMBLEONE
Couldn't do it, wouldn't want to, I'm a vagitarian.

edit on 4-11-2013 by HUMBLEONE because: (no reason given)

Are you saying you survive off eating nothing but vagina?

Krazysh0t
Sorry to post something a bit off topic here, but am I the only one who keeps reading the title and misreads it as "Hitler killed and ate his German Shepherd"? I think I may need a break from these forums...

Anyways, as for the REAL story, this is ashame. But one must do what one can to survive. I guarantee you that if this person took the moral high ground and let himself starve, the dog would feast on him.

OK....that makes 4 of us now.



Heaven help us...

kountzero

Beavers
reply to post by Ameilia

 

I've just woken up and thought this said Hitler instead of Hiker.

Imagine my disappointment?

Not to make light of the subject, but so did I. lol

A.Hitler was a Vegetarian

www.vegetariansareevil.com...

reply to post by FlyingFox


dude serial killers that eat their victims are just as evil as the ones who don't eat their victims.

One thing about man's best friend that people forget about, is that many dogs, if they knew what was happening, would give their life for the master they love. The dog would insist he become food so his master could live. Especially many German Shepard's..


tkdrl: I can't stop laughing

I had to actually click INTO this thread until it dawned on me it's NOT about Hitler eating his dog.

Maybe we're all going crazy...but it's an interesting phenomenon that I am not the only one reading "Hiker" as "Hitler". Maybe we already have certain expectations on content here on ATS so that we assume thread about Hitler eating a dog is more likely. Fascinating.

I guess...the words "killed", "German", "shepherd" somehow make "Hitler" more likely in context. Again..interesting phenomenon.

Godwins Law proves correct once again...

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

Krazysh0t
Sorry to post something a bit off topic here, but am I the only one who keeps reading the title and misreads it as "Hitler killed and ate his German Shepherd"?

This is common human psychology of pattern recognition. You saw the word German and 'Hiker' became 'Hitler'. I once saw examples of this. It's funny it happened here by accident and multiple people experienced it. It is the way we read. We do not always look at the letters in the middle of the word.

Now that that is settled I would like to address the OP. Although this activity is disturbing it is quite normal. As we go through the process of starvation the brain also starves. It will eventually reach a point where higher brain function shuts down due to lack of fuel. Part of that higher brain function are your mirror neurons which are responsible for empathy. Apathy is almost always observed in those who suffer long term starvation. I could point you to many instances of cannibalism to prove this, however an interesting study was done during WWII.

en.wikipedia.org...

There were extreme reactions to the psychological effects during the experiment including self-mutilation (one subject amputated three fingers of his hand with an axe, though the subject was unsure if he had done so intentionally or accidentally). Participants exhibited a preoccupation with food, both during the starvation period and the rehabilitation phase. Sexual interest was drastically reduced, and the volunteers showed signs of social withdrawal and isolation.The participants reported a decline in concentration, comprehension and judgment capabilities, although the standardized tests administered showed no actual signs of diminished capacity.

I would like to point out a couple of things here. First, the effects appear to be a starvation or depression induced psychosis. Second, we were feeding these men when this happened. The experiment only reduced the caloric intake to a point where the body would begin to starve. So imagine not having any food at all for that amount of time. In the past I have studied many cannibalism cases and they all appear to have the same thing in common.

Starvation causes the brain to lose higher brain function over time. Someone in the party then resorts to cannibalism. It is important to point out that not everyone does this but a large enough percentage of the population does that every government feels the need to cover it up. It's like humanities dirty little secret. This case did not involve the victim eating another human but it did involve him eating another entity that he should have empathy for.

Just food for thought.

snowspirit
The dog saved him from a bear, and likely kept him warm at night, and likely also kept away other wildlife that could have been dangerous.
The dog could have probably caught, or dug up something edible, and shared.

IMO, the dog - alive - was a far greater asset than this man realized.

A lot of assumptions about a dog. I don't know a single dog with all those capabilities.

My dog ate a large pizza the other night as soon as we turned our backs. He certainly wasn't concerned about our well being.

reply to post by nixie_nox


maybe he should have brought a fat man

Once one gets a bit hypothermic and probably hypoglycemic, rational thought is difficult. I, too, think that the dog was probably of more benefit as a partial protection from hypothermia. Surviving 3 months in the wilderness once your food is gone would be impossible for most people. Having a .22 rifle along would seem a minimum start. Complete story should be interesting.

reply to post by Tusks


was probably in deer country too