Pets! 🐶

I am no fan of pets – dogs, cats, ferrets, snakes, you name it that people have solely for purposes of companionship. It seems awful lonely and deprived to depend on an animal to keep one as a companion. There are fellow humans to do that, community events to be involved in rather than relying on an animal that prays on your emotions for food and shelter.

There is a whole industry that has sprung up around animal rights that claim that dogs and cats are something that need special protection. Right wing politicians that want to cut food and health care to needy children are usually the most vocal advocates for animal rights. But dogs and cats just seek their biological needs met, they don’t have feelings or emotions. They do pray on our own emotions but they’re not thinking beings with complex emotions beyond what is learned to better meet their biological instincts.

To be sure, animals have biological needs to healthy. Domesticated animals have significant needs that only humans can provide to the thanks to breeding. Domestic animals have specific diets, shelter requirements and even a need for human attention to productive healthy animals.

Often the law views food animals and those hunted differently. It puts a higher burden on humans to be humane compared to nature. And it certainly puts a much higher level of care towards animals then other man made products like motors, electronics and other non living equipment not made out of renewable resources.

I think we would be a lot better off if we viewed pets more like livestock and the renewable resources they are. Don’t abuse them, meet their biological needs but don’t worship them – they can always be recreated and replaced. Dog breeding is a a big business. It should be fine to discard a pet should the cost of surgery or health care is too high and just get another one. Badly behaved and trained animals should be replaced.

I have no need for a pet now but I could some day envision having a dog or cat for practical purposes. A cat could control rats and mice in the barnyard, a use of waste milk. A dog might be useful for hunting or to guard a barnyard against predators. But I can’t imagine having any emotional connection beyond servicing the land.

Ultimately what I care about is the land and a healthy ecosystem. I am always a bit alarmed about the number of birds attacked by domestic cats and I can’t imagine having a dog in a city and carrying around a bag of dog crap to throw in the trash and send to the landfill. I’m fine with shoveling and spreading manure from herbivores in support of the land and producing food to eat or fur to sell but I just don’t like the idea of having a dog or cat solely because one is lonely.