Is keeping pets Cruel ?

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by vixis

*laughing* I'm "special" I am ...

What can I say, I dont have much spare time and the interesting threads always seem to be dead with I decide I have 2p to contribute!! Better late than...nevermind.

Resurrection of old threads is a lost art my love, keep up the good work

Dave is pretty much right. Some pets are not seen as pets, more of companions/family members.

I've never lived in a house without a dog(s) for any etended period of time. My last spaniel I had from the age of 4 and he died when I was 18 so it was exactly like I'd lost a family member! There was a 6 month or so period when we didn't have any pets, and the house just felt eerily quiet as if something was missing. If I come home to an empty house it just feels completely wrong! We now have two little rescue dogs.

To answer the original question about is it morally right, most of the breeds of pets, in particular dogs, probably cannot fend for themselves anymore due to the way they have been bred for the past hundreds of years. They are no longer wild animals, and most importantly they are not brought up in the wild so have no idea what to do, how to behave.

Well sister proved resist to all know training methods, but I'm sure as my neice grows up small hands are so much easier at cleaning bikes...

[Littlepeahead]

Isn't there a phrase dogs have owners, cats have staff. I spent all night sitting up with a cat who has a bit of a lurgy, then spent £200 at the vet this morning on antibiotics and a pain killer, blood tests etc. That's on top of pet insurance at £20 per month.

He has free run of the house and garden, sleeps on the bed, sofa or in my helmet bag. Unless I'm asleep too, and then he sleeps on my head.

He eats expensive cat food, hand carved ham and turkey from the deli, tinned tuna but in spring water, not brine.

And I just bought his Christmas present, the DVD box set of David Attenborough's Life of Birds, which he'll happily watch all day.

He spent the first 5 years of his life in a cat shelter - but now he lives a life of luxury. I've even made provision for him in my will.

If kicked him out and gave him his 'freedom' he'd probably ring the RSPCA and demand that I take him straight back in. No one can tell me that he isn't happy. I just wish all owners treated their pets so well.

[gruntygiggles]

Hmmm, missed this first time round. I can only speak for dogs really and what I have to say is this:-

Don't be fooled into thinking that we are keeping them as pets!

All of todays dogs have evolved from Wolves. They became domesticated not because we chose to capture and train them as we did with horses, but because they chose to come close to our ancestors and USE us. They learned that they didn't have to do all the hard work of hunting and killing and could live quite happily with the scaps of meat left over from human hunts. They became more and more comfortable in the presence of their providers and eventually, man learned that they could use the wolves as well in helping them find the prey to kill. It became a relationship born of each having a desire to make their own existence easier....we too are animals lets not forget.

SO...this relationship, however old, was forged by wolves, not man. Still now, you see remote tribes the world over that have dogs. The dogs are not pets, they get no affection or attention and they live wild...but they CHOOSE to live with the tribe...they know they get an easier meal that way and the tribe have the added benefit of additional protection, guarding, alert to danger by the dogs barking etc.

I wholeheartedly disagree with many of the KC's breeding standards and feel that we, in general have ruined many breeds and made it impossible for those breeds to exists without us. That is immoral. End of.

As for healthy breeds and the majority of owners who do love and care for their animals...I don't feel that this is immoral at all. It a mutually beneficial relationship that, I say again.....was founded by the approach of Dogs to humans....not the other way around.

As for the use of the word "toy" to describe some breeds. Again.....it's foundations can be found in a mutually beneficial relationship formed many many years ago. It goes back to the Tibetan Monks. These animals that hung around them, eating scraps and sleeping in the warmth provided by their fires were found to be an additional form of heating. In short...the dogs sat in the laps of the monks, both were kept warm by this, the dogs got fed and housed, the monks got a kind of hot water bottle and protection in the form of the dogs barking at intruders.

That line of dog is now known as the King Charles Spaniel......due to the way they were brought over here in Victorian times. They came to England in the 16th century and were first known to King Charles I, but are more closely asociated with King Charles II. Ladies of this time would take them on carriage rides to keep them warm....they would also keep down the problem of fleas as the fleas would go from the humans to the dogs.

Anyway...enough of all that. Simply put.....I don't feel the keeping of dogs as pets is immoral. Cats I can't comment on, horses is a difficult one as we did force them into domestication, but hey.....there's not much we can do about it now other than work hard to prevent cruelty and neglect.

[Bri w]

My dog, oops our dog, is probably my 2nd best buddy. Through the day, if I'm at my desk she sleeps somewhere around me or under the desk. If I'm out visiting customers she comes with me through choice, and she always wants to come. We cover miles along the beach or in the woods, again her choice. If I'm away with work I always ask after her, and she cries if she can't find me (and sleeps under my desk).

On an evening she will sit next to Mrs B for a while but invariably comes back to me. If she's tired she will go and lie in her cage (door permanently open).

She is my, oops our, 5th Border Collie, covering almost 50yrs, and currently no.2 in my favourites list next to Mollie-dog who died in Jan '92.

Is she a pet? Thats semantics. To some she will be percieved that way but to me she's my no. 2 buddy.

Is it cruel to keep a pet? If its a wild animal thats caught and 'made a pet' then yes its cruel. If its from domesticated stock and given a good home, cared for and loved then it is the opposite of cruel. In my opinion anyway.

My daughter still finds it hard to eat chicken. We don't buy the organic stuff but we do buy free range. So I say to her, 'this animal was reared for food. If it wasn't going to be a food item, it wouldn't have existed. Now which is better - to have lived a happy and contented life, or never to have lived at all?'

Originally Posted by Littlepeahead

Isn't there a phrase dogs have owners, cats have staff. I spent all night sitting up with a cat who has a bit of a lurgy, then spent £200 at the vet this morning on antibiotics and a pain killer, blood tests etc. That's on top of pet insurance at £20 per month.

He has free run of the house and garden, sleeps on the bed, sofa or in my helmet bag. Unless I'm asleep too, and then he sleeps on my head.

He eats expensive cat food, hand carved ham and turkey from the deli, tinned tuna but in spring water, not brine.

And I just bought his Christmas present, the DVD box set of David Attenborough's Life of Birds, which he'll happily watch all day.

He spent the first 5 years of his life in a cat shelter - but now he lives a life of luxury. I've even made provision for him in my will.

If kicked him out and gave him his 'freedom' he'd probably ring the RSPCA and demand that I take him straight back in. No one can tell me that he isn't happy. I just wish all owners treated their pets so well.

I'm glad someone else's cat sleeps on their head! He has a nice comfy scotsman to lounge over but nooooo, decides to pick on the poor defenseless sleeping kiwi! LPH - can I reincarnate and be one of your cats??!

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by vixis

LPH - can I reincarnate and be one of your cats??!

You and me both! Before i met him i wanted to be him, when i did meet him i really wanted to be him!!! Hes a cool dude as well as having a most excellent life.

[Littlepeahead]

As you can see, here he is making a bid for freedom. It's no wonder I wake up with hair like Tina Turner every morning.

As I type this he is lying on a fluffy blanket on the sofa watching the cricket.