The right way to abuse your pets?

In case you haven't yet noticed my thoughts and ideas do not usually match those of most people in general. The reason for this is that I do not blindly accept the things that I am told. I do not take on faith the things that authority figures say. My way is to seek out the truth and let it speak for itself.

I am going to say some things that might make people a bit angry today. It is not my intention, but the truth often makes people angry. In light of the things that I am about to say, I want to be very clear. I do not hate animals. In fact, I love animals. Unlike people they are always honest. They never hide how they feel and they love unconditionally.

I have a healthy love and respect for all life. It is very easy for me to fall in love with and become attached to an animal. Now for the part that seems to make most people go nuts. I firmly believe, with very little exception, that making an animal a pet is an act of cruelty, not an act of love.

Before the flaming begins, let's talk about why I feel that way. When people think of having a pet,  usually they think of the ways in which having that pet enriches their lives. They think of coming home and having the animal waiting for them, happy to see them.  Or maybe they think of the fact that they are rescuing the animal from some horrible fate.

What they don't think of is all of the countless hours the animal spends suffering waiting for them to come home. The person never experiences it so why should they think of it? Animals don't really have a sense of time. You can tell them you are leaving at 7 and will be back at 5, but once you leave, all they know is that you abandoned them. They suffer all day long through the pain of loss.

Now, let's talk about environment. Over millenia of conditioning, the natural habitat for humans has become one that is almost entirely indoors. We live in buildings. The natural environment for most of the animals that we take as pets, especially the ones that are more than say 15 pounds or so, is outdoors.

Animals are not built for, nor in any way prepared for all of the indoor concerns we have. All of the messes that they create or find themselves a part of are typically things that don't exist outdoors. Outside, everywhere is the bathroom. Why should inside be any different?

Outside is a wide open environment where animals can roam freely. As messy as they may be, our homes are not wild places, filled with opportunities for tracking and hunting. Unless you live in a mansion and give your pets free reign, buildings are not places where animals can belong. Most of them want to be outside, wild and free.

Some people realize this and allow their pets to run around in their fenced in yards while they are sleeping or are not home. On the surface this seems like a good idea. It gives the animal more freedom right? Not really. They are still trapped, just now they can see all the stuff they can't get to. And what do they do when they see something they want? They either go under, over or through the fence to get to it, or make your neighbor's lives uncomfortable by loudly complaining that they can't get to it.

Every time I hear dogs barking for hours on end, it occurs to me to wonder how much their owners really must hate animals, to constantly subject them to such cruelty. Yes, the barking is unpleasant to me, but I can tune it out. The dog can't tune out how it feels about being alone and trapped. It can't ignore its sorrow.

Then there are those people who keep their animals inside in cages, in order to reduce the amount of discomfort for other people and to keep the animals from destroying things while they are gone. Yes, this does adequately handle those problems, but I cannot put words to how messed up I think that is. How can you possibly claim to care for your pet when you reduce its world down to a four foot by four foot cube?

So, while I do love animals, I do not believe, for the most part, in having pets. There are exceptions of course. Some people have their lives set up in such a way that there is always someone around to spend time with the animal or some animals that have been domesticated to the point where outside no longer holds any draw.

My personal preference, instead of having a pet, is to have friends that are animals. What I am talking about is animals that can and do take care of themselves but choose to spend time with me because they love me just as much as I love them. That way, we can have a mutual friendship, one based on love and respect and either one of us can move on when or if it becomes time to do so, instead of the master/slave relationship that most pet ownership really is.