The Weird Way People Treat Pets

[Outcast9428]

I agree that turning your pet into an ornamental rug feels seriously wrong to me. Like, you’re going to walk all over your former pet’s body? What the hell?

I don’t think there’s any problem with people keeping pets. Pets are much much happier being domesticated and living under the care of a good human then they are out in the wild. My dogs would never survive if they had to go out into the wild. Pets are good for kids too so they can learn to appreciate animal life, see how every animal is his or her own unique person just the same way as humans are and become more empathetic.

[Lucas88]

Whilst I'm on the topic of pets and their treatment what do you guys think to the ethics of keeping animals as pets? Is it fundamentally wrong in some way? What about people who get pets and keep them in cages? People who keep dogs in cages really piss me off and shouldn't have that dog as a pet in my opinion.

@Outcast9428 I think out of everyone on the forum I haven't seen anyone who seems to be as compassionate towards animals as you. What do you think to the article I mentioned and the ethics of owning pets?

What about you, @Lucas88?

Keeping a pet is a good thing is you look after the animal well and do things to raise its standard of life and increase its happiness. My family adopted a cat that had been abused by the neighbor and fled from its previous home. He was tremendously traumatized when we first found him, but we cared for him, fed him up and gave him loads of love and affection. Now he is absolutely thriving and rules the neighborhood as his own.

I'm opposed to keeping a pet when the animal isn't looked after properly or kept in a cage. People show me their pet birds locked up in a little cage and I just think that it's cruel. I'm even honest about what I think. I tell those people outright that I don't think that it's right to keep an animal in a cage like that and they just look at me as though I were crazy.

I have absolutely no respect for people who mistreat animals. I think that you can generally tell what kind a person somebody is by observing their attitudes towards animals.

[Winston]

Pets are the most perverse things about human culture. People buy a dog, they make a big deal how the dog is "their best friend" then have the dog castrated by a vet so he won't jump around and bark as much or hump a leg. Way to treat your best friend... with friends like that, who needs enemies? Girls will push little tiny dogs around in strollers or carry them around if if they are babies. Some people refer to their dogs, or cats, as their "furbabies". It's sickening.

I like a dog, a guard dog. He ought to stay outside. No excessive petting, no kissing the damn creature. Just let him be an "outside dog". With cats, do not even feed them... don't get them litter boxes and turn them into living stuffer toys; let them catch mice and kill their own food. Pets should only be held if one doesn't live in a city, in a more rural area, and they can roam around freely.

Also what's up with the overpriced pet food? Dogs and cats don't need to eat expensive fancy meats... just let them eat leftover human food. That's what they give pets in the Philippines and some of them live very long lives. People seem to forget an animal is an animal... they treat them as if they're one's offspring, which is a ridiculous notion and one of the biggest issues in modern culture. A pet can never replace an actual human child. To delude yourself into this is a preposterous feminist idea that needs to die already.

For once I agree with you. Wow your views on pets are very different than most Westerners. I agree with you that pets should not be "fixed". That goes against nature and is cruel. But Americans love to control everything. I also don't get why people treat pets better than people. They should not take the place of human companionship. They don't fill the void for me. I don't understand why they fill some people's void. It's strange.

However, if you guys are traveling and not stable, you shouldn't get a pet anyway. Pets are for stable people, not for people moving or traveling abroad.

[MrMan]

Pets are the most perverse things about human culture. People buy a dog, they make a big deal how the dog is "their best friend" then have the dog castrated by a vet so he won't jump around and bark as much or hump a leg. Way to treat your best friend... with friends like that, who needs enemies?

Good point? I wonder if they have dog vasectomies. That way your male dog can have some fun with the female dogs in the neighborhood without fear of infecting the neighbor's $7000 French bulldog with a mutt. Does mating knock the females out of commission.

Girls will push little tiny dogs around in strollers or carry them around if if they are babies. Some people refer to their dogs, or cats, as their "furbabies". It's sickening.

This is weird. If I were dating, and a dating profile had 'fur baby' it, that would be a negative. Even mentioning a pet in a dating profile would be. I wouldn't want to live in a house full of dog or cat hair.

We have ducks. I feed them and give them water. I take their eggs. My youngest goes out there, holds them, tells them they are cute. The older kids do that on occasion. But they leave eggs behind, not just poop. Their poop is also great fertilizer for the garden, they say.

I like a dog, a guard dog. He ought to stay outside. No excessive petting, no kissing the damn creature. Just let him be an "outside dog". With cats, do not even feed them... don't get them litter boxes and turn them into living stuffer toys; let them catch mice and kill their own food. Pets should only be held if one doesn't live in a city, in a more rural area, and they can roam around freely.

I'm not a child. Kids like pets. But I don't need to have my social needs met by an animal. I agree about dogs. I'd want one for a utilitarian function if I had one-- and outside or maybe in a dog house. I don't want him shedding on my furniture. And definitely no cats inside. If you have a barn full of grain, cats (or black snakes) can keep the rate population down. Some farmers feed the cats in the winter time so the tom cats won't kill each other off.

Also what's up with the overpriced pet food? Dogs and cats don't need to eat expensive fancy meats... just let them eat leftover human food. That's what they give pets in the Philippines and some of them live very long lives. People seem to forget an animal is an animal... they treat them as if they're one's offspring, which is a ridiculous notion and one of the biggest issues in modern culture. A pet can never replace an actual human child. To delude yourself into this is a preposterous feminist idea that needs to die already.

My grandmother used to feed the dog the table scraps and the rest was compost. We have a compost bucket. Since we started doing that, our big trash can by the road is rarely full.

I buy feed for the ducks because I get eggs every day and for the value of the eggs, it works out. But we dump compost outside and they can eat that if they want. I cut some bad-looking junk off some broccoli, had some old baked beans in the fridge and some left over apple wedges someone brought for a get-together. I put that out for the ducks last night. I had to chop the apples for them. But I eat their eggs, so it makes sense.

If I lived in a good place for it, I might not mind having goats, since I could eat their meat. We are supposed to pay a sheep farmer to own some sheep and to feed them. After we have a few of them, we could eat the one-year-olds. The problem is if the kids play with them, it makes it hard to eat them. My kids wouldn't want to eat our ducks.

[Outcast9428]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

[Outcast9428]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What are you talking about? Why have you segwayed the conversation into another rant about conservatism? This is a discussion about pets and pet ownership. For one, animals don't think the same way human beings do. They are primitive and operate on biological impulses like the imperative to survive. Animals love freedom. Why wouldn't they? When is a dog happier than when it's bounding across a field? Everything loves freedom. It's a good value to have and should be respected.

I disagree with @Winston and @MarcosZeitola. Kind of for the reason you mentioned before you inexorably started ranting hysterically about everyone being degenerate barbarians. Pets provide companionship. They are loyal and loving. I don't buy into the shit that animals don't feel emotion.

If a pet had a choice would it choose to be a stray or locked in a cage all day? Animals get everything they need in a family home. Their basic instinct is to survive. They are proficient at it. But obviously a pet wants shelter when it rains, so they will not willingly go outside.

Personally, I see no problem with showing a pet affection, or even owning a pet so long as the pet is treated with love and respect. When I get home from work there is not a single being alive on this planet that is more happy to see me walk into a room than my dog.

They like having a backyard to roam around in which my dogs have but that’s not the same as being wild and roaming wherever you want. Dogs need us, they wouldn’t be living the same kind of lives without us.

What a lot of people call freedom just looks like chaos and uncertainty to me.

[Tsar]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What are you talking about? Why have you segwayed the conversation into another rant about conservatism? This is a discussion about pets and pet ownership. For one, animals don't think the same way human beings do. They are primitive and operate on biological impulses like the imperative to survive. Animals love freedom. Why wouldn't they? When is a dog happier than when it's bounding across a field? Everything loves freedom. It's a good value to have and should be respected.

I disagree with @Winston and @MarcosZeitola. Kind of for the reason you mentioned before you inexorably started ranting hysterically about everyone being degenerate barbarians. Pets provide companionship. They are loyal and loving. I don't buy into the shit that animals don't feel emotion.

If a pet had a choice would it choose to be a stray or locked in a cage all day? Animals get everything they need in a family home. Their basic instinct is to survive. They are proficient at it. But obviously a pet wants shelter when it rains, so they will not willingly go outside.

Personally, I see no problem with showing a pet affection, or even owning a pet so long as the pet is treated with love and respect. When I get home from work there is not a single being alive on this planet that is more happy to see me walk into a room than my dog.

They like having a backyard to roam around in which my dogs have but that’s not the same as being wild and roaming wherever you want. Dogs need us, they wouldn’t be living the same kind of lives without us.

What a lot of people call freedom just looks like chaos and uncertainty to me.

I have to agree somewhat with @Outcast9428 that domesticated dogs aren't the same as wild or undomesticated dogs. Domesticated dogs can become feral but that's not their ideal environment.

@Pixel--Dude However, most animals will be happier and live more fulfilling lives in the wild because of their freedom.

Many animals will also be healthier because of their exercise and being in nature.

Some animals will live longer in captivity and look more beautiful and be protected. But there's some animals that are very difficult or nearly impossible to breed in captivity. That's because the wild is more of their home. If a wild animal is raised in captivity from the time it's a baby, it won't know how to survive on its own or not as well. That's why there's involvement with preparing animals born in captivity for potential release into the wild if that's their purpose.

[Winston]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What do you mean? Do you think deer, beavers, raccoons, squirrels, moose, wolves, cheetahs, etc prefer to live in a house or cage or zoo? Come on. Do you think elephants prefer living in zoos and circuses rather than in the wild? What about lions and tigers? Haven't you seen that great 1966 movie "Born Free" about lions? It's based on a true story.

Dogs and cats are different. They were domesticated over many generations, and some say they were genetically engineered to be pets rather than live out in the wild, and that's why they don't do as well in the wild as other animals do.

Haven't you seen horse movies like "The Black Stallion"? They always show horses happier when they are running wild on the plains and prairies.

I also heard that some animals cannot survive in captivity, such as squirrels. If you try to cage one or raise one in a glass box or house, they will die I hear. How do you explain that?

[Tsar]

@Winston Squirrels are fun and interactive in captivity. They don't die. They easily adjust more than most animals to living indoors. However, the squirrels need to be taken in as baby squirrels.

[Outcast9428]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What do you mean? Do you think deer, beavers, raccoons, squirrels, moose, wolves, cheetahs, etc prefer to live in a house or cage or zoo? Come on. Do you think elephants prefer living in zoos and circuses rather than in the wild? What about lions and tigers? Haven't you seen that great 1966 movie "Born Free" about lions? It's based on a true story.

Dogs and cats are different. They were domesticated over many generations, and some say they were genetically engineered to be pets rather than live out in the wild, and that's why they don't do as well in the wild as other animals do.

Haven't you seen horse movies like "The Black Stallion"? They always show horses happier when they are running wild on the plains and prairies.

I also heard that some animals cannot survive in captivity, such as squirrels. If you try to cage one or raise one in a glass box or house, they will die I hear. How do you explain that?

A cage, no… Zoos? Yes. All creatures will prefer a controlled environment where they are given freedom only to the extent that it doesn’t threaten them with destitution as @Pixel--Dude is explaining. But true freedom always carries the threat of destitution. People say they want that but they don’t really. They’re just whining about having to follow rules. Anybody who loves to talk about how great it is to be wild and free and how terrible civilization is for domesticating humans, turning us into pussies and eliminating the warrior spirit or alpha male in us or whatever is free to go live in The Democratic Republic of Congo and see how wonderful life is when you don’t have rules and civilization anymore.

[MrMan]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What do you mean? Do you think deer, beavers, raccoons, squirrels, moose, wolves, cheetahs, etc prefer to live in a house or cage or zoo? Come on. Do you think elephants prefer living in zoos and circuses rather than in the wild? What about lions and tigers? Haven't you seen that great 1966 movie "Born Free" about lions? It's based on a true story.

Dogs and cats are different. They were domesticated over many generations, and some say they were genetically engineered to be pets rather than live out in the wild, and that's why they don't do as well in the wild as other animals do.

Haven't you seen horse movies like "The Black Stallion"? They always show horses happier when they are running wild on the plains and prairies.

I also heard that some animals cannot survive in captivity, such as squirrels. If you try to cage one or raise one in a glass box or house, they will die I hear. How do you explain that?

A cage, no… Zoos? Yes. All creatures will prefer a controlled environment where they are given freedom only to the extent that it doesn’t threaten them with destitution as @Pixel--Dude is explaining. But true freedom always carries the threat of destitution. People say they want that but they don’t really. They’re just whining about having to follow rules. Anybody who loves to talk about how great it is to be wild and free and how terrible civilization is for domesticating humans, turning us into pussies and eliminating the warrior spirit or alpha male in us or whatever is free to go live in The Democratic Republic of Congo and see how wonderful life is when you don’t have rules and civilization anymore.

My guess is that most animals don't care and don't sit around thinking about whether they would like it better in a zoo or on the outside.

If the animals in the zoo have a suitable enclosure, good food, another animal of the same species to meet with, etc. most of them probably don't worry about it.

I do wonder if some of the more intelligent primates get a little self-conscious. I went to the zoo once and a male orangutan was laying down with his pelvis blocked from view by a kind of wide metal part of the fence. A female orangutan was apparently giving him some oral pleasure, probably trying to get him ready for another round of copulation. I read their descriptions and male was 40, and they'd put a 20-year-old female in there. She was probably rather demanding, and wearing him out and he was probably just rolling with it and enjoying it. He was write by the fence where visitors would be really close, but they had the 'action' blocked. So maybe it was from being a bit self-conscious at all these creatures coming by and gawking at them while they worked at making some little baby orangutan-orangutan. Maybe he got more attention since he and his partner didn't have to scavenge for food. Or maybe he could have experienced the same thing in the wild if he'd lived on Borneo. But palm or rubber plantation owners probably weren't going to burn his home down in the zoo.

[Outcast9428]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What do you mean? Do you think deer, beavers, raccoons, squirrels, moose, wolves, cheetahs, etc prefer to live in a house or cage or zoo? Come on. Do you think elephants prefer living in zoos and circuses rather than in the wild? What about lions and tigers? Haven't you seen that great 1966 movie "Born Free" about lions? It's based on a true story.

Dogs and cats are different. They were domesticated over many generations, and some say they were genetically engineered to be pets rather than live out in the wild, and that's why they don't do as well in the wild as other animals do.

Haven't you seen horse movies like "The Black Stallion"? They always show horses happier when they are running wild on the plains and prairies.

I also heard that some animals cannot survive in captivity, such as squirrels. If you try to cage one or raise one in a glass box or house, they will die I hear. How do you explain that?

A cage, no… Zoos? Yes. All creatures will prefer a controlled environment where they are given freedom only to the extent that it doesn’t threaten them with destitution as @Pixel--Dude is explaining. But true freedom always carries the threat of destitution. People say they want that but they don’t really. They’re just whining about having to follow rules. Anybody who loves to talk about how great it is to be wild and free and how terrible civilization is for domesticating humans, turning us into pussies and eliminating the warrior spirit or alpha male in us or whatever is free to go live in The Democratic Republic of Congo and see how wonderful life is when you don’t have rules and civilization anymore.

And current society doesn't carry the threat of destitution? Many are experiencing it right now with the artificial cost of living crisis. Among other crises that have been thrust onto everyone over the past few years, all of which are causing some detrimental effect to people's lives, whether it be through things rising in price or people losing jobs and businesses etc. People are constantly living on a knife edge. Anything could happen that could put you or anyone you care about in a position of destitution, but I suppose so long as you're alright it's all good

I'm not okay with that though, its why I support marriage loans. Marriage loans essentially give everybody a home. Hungary gives married couples $30,000 that they don't have to pay back if they have three kids or more. This solves two things... First, it gives everybody a home, secondly, it makes sure that people don't just live off the marriage loan alone. It motivates people to be productive, but it doesn't just hand everything to them. As a result, Hungary has one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world.

@MrMan I swear your sense of humor is borderline genius, the incredibly nonchalant way you describe these ridiculously funny events is comedy gold.

[jeniferbet]

When they do not love them and treat them as if animals owe them something

[Ginerbell]

I agree, turning a pet into a rug seems extremely unsettling. Pets are family members, not decorations. As for pet ownership ethics, it's crucial to prioritize their well-being and treat them with love and respect. Consider exploring options like Pet Prescription Without Vet services for alternative care.