Why do humans keep pets?

[QuantumEcho]

I never fully understood why we do that?. 

[Podsnap]

To have a perfect captive who won't talk back and who is easy to control. Once their reproductive organs have been ripped out so they don't inconvenience us by spraying in the house or humping, they are relatively easy to deal with. We just feed them and deal with their wastes. We don't have to argue with them. The human is always the boss.

 

It is interesting that the pet craze coincides with it becoming cool to say you hate human children.

[QuantumEcho]

Just now, Podsnap said:

To have a perfect captive who won't talk back and who is easy to control. Once their reproductive organs have been ripped out so they don't inconvenience us by spraying in the house or humping, they are relatively easy to deal with. We just feed them and deal with their wastes. We don't have to argue with them. The human is always the boss.

 

It is interesting that the pet craze coincides with it becoming cool to say you hate human children.

yes it does. i just find it interesting why we did that. 

[mangakamaiden]

Animals are better than people 

[The Dryad]

Originally, it probably started out symbiotically, then eventually we all caught feelings for each other and evolved together.

[Lord Jade Cross]

.

 

[Redwylde]

Companionship, because we find them fascinating to be around, maybe we rescued them from a bad situation and want to show them the love they deserve. There's lots of reasons why.

 

It's not a strange phenomenon for humans to have animal companions as it happens A LOT in the wild - spiders having frog companions, animals hunting co-operatively, predators protecting bottom feeders who keep their skin clean of parasites etc.

Companionship between species is just another type of socialism that's presents in all animals.

[WinterWanderer]

I don't see my pets as just "pets." Not all of us treat our pets like they're toys or entertainment, as seems to be implied by some posts in this thread.  I resent it when people treat their pets like dolls. Or like infants. 

 

My pets are like my roommates... Like roommates who mooch off of you and don't help out with rent.  I restrict them only as much as is required by society, or for their safety (spaying/neutering, vaccinations, leashes, etc.). Beyond that, they do as they please and I don't expect anything from them. They're not here for my entertainment. They're here because they have a better life than if they had stayed on the streets where I found them. It's just an added bonus that unlike many roommate situations, I actually enjoy living with them.  

 

I'd agree that I enjoy having them around for companionship. But not for entertainment. And not to fulfill a need for kids. They're a completely different species with their own personalities. 

[Guest]

We rescued ours from neglect and abuse. They would die if left in the wild as they are domesticated. 

[Anthracite_Impreza]

They're a very important part of our psyche, considering we've been around domesticated animals for thousands of years. It's like the longing for a human baby some people have, except with other species.

[Blomdor]

It depends on the aims and wishes of both parties. Often enough, we adopt other animals for some of the same reasons we bother to interact with other human beings; companionship, comfort, mutual affection, and so on. Some creatures such as dogs have historically assisted their humans in hunting, and cats were invaluable to farmers seeking to control rodents and other pests that might otherwise have threatened their crops.

 

I choose to live with animals because I love them. I take comfort in their company and want to do my best to ensure their happiness as well. If I cannot, I do not adopt them, and that is that. They are not my captives any more than I am theirs; the cats I live with may come and go from my house as they please, and if they wanted to wander elsewhere, they certainly could.

[Homer]

In nearly 30 years of pet ownership, we only ever bought three guinea pigs. All the dogs, cats, parrots, mice or chinchillas kind of "ended up" being with us, be it because of death, rescuing, fostering or them bumping into us at some point.

 

Depending on the kind of pet that lives with you, it's a level of companionship you simply don't get to experience with people. We know that we made a positive difference in the lives of those animals (and they did for us). It's certainly not to have someone to boss around and one would have to be a clueless, pathetic lowlife to have a pet for that reason.

 

If there's one thing I really miss in my life, it's having a dog.

[SweetTart]

3 hours ago, Podsnap said:

To have a perfect captive who won't talk back and who is easy to control. Once their reproductive organs have been ripped out so they don't inconvenience us by spraying in the house or humping, they are relatively easy to deal with.

I assume this is hyperbolic/sarcastic, but regardless spaying/neutering your animals is extremely important if you aren't equipped to properly care for, raise, and find homes for kittens or puppies. Dogs and cats have been domesticated for hundreds, even thousands of years. Most aren't capable of living on their own in the wild, and even if they were, animal control is typically called and the animal is captured. Thousands of animals are put down every day because shelters are overcrowded, people aren't spaying/neutering their pets and they are suffering for it. Fix your pets people.

 

Anyway, stepping down from the soapbox, I like having pets because I love animals. My pets aren't just pets, they're family and I love them. The main draw of pets in our current time is companionship.

[thylacine]

I think the more we become separated from the natural world, the more we need pets.  Animals bring nature into the home.  The life we live, indoors, working in offices, with air conditioning, it's just not natural.  We belong in nature, even though we don't admit it to ourselves.  Animals bring the wild with them when they come live with us.  Dogs are really wolves deep inside, and every cat is a really a miniature tiger.

[Podsnap]

3 hours ago, SweetTart said:

I assume this is hyperbolic/sarcastic, but regardless spaying/neutering your animals is extremely important if you aren't equipped to properly care for, raise, and find homes for kittens or puppies. Dogs and cats have been domesticated for hundreds, even thousands of years. Most aren't capable of living on their own in the wild, and even if they were, animal control is typically called and the animal is captured. Thousands of animals are put down every day because shelters are overcrowded, people aren't spaying/neutering their pets and they are suffering for it. Fix your pets people.

 

 

I have trapped/neutered multiple feral cats in the past so I'm not disagreeing with you. I did come across this article tho and thought it was interesting (apparently Norwegians don't believe in spaying/neutering): https://jennifermargulis.net/norwegians-believe-spaying-or-neutering-a-dog-is-cruel/

[SweetTart]

45 minutes ago, Podsnap said:

I have trapped/neutered multiple feral cats in the past so I'm not disagreeing with you. I did come across this article tho and thought it was interesting (apparently Norwegians don't believe in spaying/neutering): https://jennifermargulis.net/norwegians-believe-spaying-or-neutering-a-dog-is-cruel/

That's really interesting! I can see where their views are coming from, and It'd be nice if every pet owner in America was actually responsible with their animals and we didn't have to worry about spaying/neutering, but sadly that isn't the case. I disagree with it being a cruel practice though, as long as you get the procedure done at a good veterinary hospital, you keep them from irritating the stitches, and give them pain medication they should be just fine. People get preventative surgeries/procedures all the time, although of a different type.

I can absolutely agree with docking/cropping being cruel though.

[divided_sky]

Emergency food source

[21LAUR21]

I have read that it might be a neurological byproduct of our parental tendencies. Like how we usually prefer pets that have juvenile features (big eyes, big heads, kinda chubby, etc.). I think the term is called neoteny. I have also heard that petkeeping stems from our ability to put ourselves in that animals shoes. When you think about it, it has an evolutionary advantage in the sense of hunting, but what happens when you start to think about that animals experience and empathize...and here we are today. Petkeeping may have started off as a way to gain resources, like having dogs to help us hunt, or cows for milk, etc., but over the years they just became engrained into society. From being status symbols, and being trendy to now literally becoming part of the family in most homes.

[daveb]

In addition to some of the other reasons posted above, there are health benefits to both pet owners and to the pets themselves. The good thing is people who don't want pets don't have to have them.

[divided_sky]

42 minutes ago, daveb said:

In addition to some of the other reasons posted above, there are health benefits to both pet owners and to the pets themselves. The good thing is people who don't want pets don't have to have them.

That's a good point. I get far more exercise than I probably otherwise would without my dog. It's just not the same exploring without her. When I was living on my own and away from her, I found myself getting out for long walks less. Especially at night, I feel pretty weird just walking around at night by myself, it's creepy as fuck. With her, I seem like I could be a respectable member of society. Sort of. I don't know what I will do without her, I hope she lives forever. My beagle before did not care to be on walks much, she just wanted to sniff endlessly and not really actually move anywhere. Once this one came along I began spending a lot more time outside

[Roidgy]

like that good good fuzzy soft boy to pat pat on tha head

[Homer]

The real question is "Why do pets keep humans?"

[daveb]

20 minutes ago, Homer said:

The real question is "Why do pets keep humans?"

Because they get food, companionship, protection from predators and other hazards of living in the wild. There are reasons some animals, like dogs and cats adopted humans long ago, and basically domesticated themselves. It was a partnership, not one-sided like with some of the other animals we domesticated as food sources or beasts of burden, for example.  

[Sally]

I consider my cat a companion animal, not a pet.  She considers me her staff.  

[Guest]

I'm not sure how it happened that humans started keeping animals as pets but I know there were animals that were taken and bred to be domesticated. Cats are pretty wimpy compared to their ancestors. You could say the same for humans, too.

[Epitaph]

Pets started out as tools for survival. Dogs and horses are one of the only animals that have stamina levels compared to that of a human and therefore could travel as far as a human when they needed to move, and they made for intelligent, teachable, and highly adaptable companions. Cats made for good population control of pests so long as their own population was controlled. Other animals provided food.

 

It's only recently in the past few thousand years, and in the last 150 that domestication and selective breeding allowed these animals to be considered as pets. Our modern day environment rarely calls on the purpose these animals used to serve in our past, and because of that, both the animals and our tendencies and priorities on what we view them as has shifted.

[Skycaptain]

Cats keep humans as slaves 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Podsnap said:

I have trapped/neutered multiple feral cats in the past so I'm not disagreeing with you. I did come across this article tho and thought it was interesting (apparently Norwegians don't believe in spaying/neutering): https://jennifermargulis.net/norwegians-believe-spaying-or-neutering-a-dog-is-cruel/

My female dog when I was a kid was never spayed. When she reached about age 9, she began having tumors grow on her stomach that would cause her pain and since she was a small dog, bleeding when the tumor scraped the floor. The only treatment was to have it surgically removed when they popped up. But, they kept coming until she had to be put to sleep, because they were just getting too bad and her quality of life was suffering. She wasn't unhealthy beyond that. The cause? Not having her spayed when she was younger. The hormones can cause non-malignant tumors to form on the reproductive systems. If she had been spayed before it became an issue, she would have lived much longer and not been in so much pain. But, by time it became an issue, it was too late. 

 

With other pets, like rabbits, the female has a high chance of cancer if left intact. Rabbits run an 80% chance of cancer by age 2 if they are not spayed.

 

So, personally, I don't do it out of trying to keep them from being pregnant or for behavior issues. But, for their health. My spayed dogs live 15-20 years and I never have to watch them in pain like my childhood dog. My rabbit doesn't have false pregnancies that cause her to rip her own fur out and she's four now and her risk of cancer is very low. 

[Philip027]

16 hours ago, Podsnap said:

To have a perfect captive who won't talk back and who is easy to control. Once their reproductive organs have been ripped out so they don't inconvenience us by spraying in the house or humping, they are relatively easy to deal with. We just feed them and deal with their wastes. We don't have to argue with them. The human is always the boss.

 

It is interesting that the pet craze coincides with it becoming cool to say you hate human children.

Yeah, pretty much this.

 

Suffice it to say, I'm not big on animals.

[WinterWanderer]

6 hours ago, Moon Spirit ☽ said:

Cats are pretty wimpy compared to their ancestors. 

You should meet my cat.