This makes owning a pet sound inhumane
If you ignore them all day, definitely. Pet ownership is a contract.
My dog gets to come along with me on most of my adventures, and I work from home. He spends the vast majority of his time with his humans doing stuff.
When I’m home and he’s chilling in the backyard, he has his friends (dogs and humans) who visit him through our back alley, he has a rich social life.
I think he lives a fulfilling life.
I feel like my two dogs have fulfilling lives as well. My husband and I work different shifts, so they’re not without a human for long, and when they are they have each other. They get a lot of outings.
There are certain pets where I imagine it is. I’ve been holding off getting a bird because I’m grappling with the idea that most pet-type birds are wildly social creatures, and locking them up alone for 8+ hours a day isn’t fair. And having an entire flock of budgies may not be realistic
Some people have a bird room. Alternatively, you could go through the Falconry certification process to get a sky doggie that you need to take hunting periodically or it goes stir crazy
These are both good ideas and I will chew on it. I’d never heard of falconry certification before - I just assumed those who did it just knew how to train them (kind of like training dogs lol). Thanks!
What I know is that there is an apprenticeship process, where they see if you have what it takes to care for a raptor. They are delicate little apex predators and need lots of love. They are also borderline endangered because of pesticides making their eggs weak and prone to cracking. I’m sure you’ve heard of the falcon sex hat? It was invented to solve the problem of failed eggs by making many more of them than normal.
the way a lot of people treat their pets definitely is, the only valid way to own a pet is to treat it as part of your family. The best pet owners are the ones who refer to them as their child, they unquestioningly take good care of them.
It’s capitalism keeping us from having home lives that is the inhumane part.
What are the odds in the year 3000, pet ownership will be seen as a blemish on history? “In yee olden thymes, they had nazis… meat eaters… pet owners… $your_chosen_political_party-s…”
we’ve had pets for at least like 10’000 years now, i don’t think it’s going to become unacceptable any time soon.
What i do think is likely is for there to be laws regulating pet ownership, just like how we remove children from the care of irresponsible parents. I think i recall sweden introducing some laws on needing to register the ownership of pet cats and dogs, or something along those lines.
And they only live for so long… 😥
Ah, you don’t own a tortoise, do you?
My a dad bought mine when I was eight. It’s on track to live at least as long as my grandchildren.
The way the world is headed the turtle might outlast the great grandkids
LoL I didn’t think about that. Turtles and some birds, too I think.
Never long enough
My cat made it 18 years, it wasn’t long enough. He was in great health until the last 6 months when everything went down hill so goddamned fast.
Of all the cats that have been in my family, he was the one that had the shortest run at it. The second shortest run was my sister’s cat that made it to 22.
I miss him so much.
Some of my family members keep asking me when I’m going to replace him. And one literally asked me the week he passed away.
I don’t know if I will, but if I do it’s going to be a long time.
Cat Tax
So sweet <3
He was a cuddle bug
His favorite place to be was all up in your grill and he wasn’t afraid to make it happen
He would also wake me up by basically assuming the CPR position and going to town like a bear trying to open a trashcan until he got the attention he demanded. Usually with his paws in the side of my head if I was laying on my stomach, and his paws on my chest if I was laying on my back.
Whenever I got home he’d run from wherever he was screaming the whole way then throw himself on the floor in front of me, roll on his back, then inch his way across the floor purring and screaming the whole way over to me. Everytime I got home almost no matter how short of time I was gone.
The silence was deafening the first time he wasn’t there.
What a sweetie! Pets are the best thing ever, and I know that feeling of loss. I had a little dog for 15 years, and I was absolutely lost when she passed.
Please don’t own birds
ugh. yes. I have my father in laws cockatoo and its taught me this is just not something that should be a pet but it was almost 40 when we got him so can’t exactly rewild him. We live day to day in terms of feet, they are meant to live in terms of miles.
