After a recent discussion about dogs in a other thread and a little back and forth, thought this might be interesting. Putting a dog in an outfit to match yourself for the image and style when out jogging is a little odd. But is is cruel on the dog? Is keeping a mouse or rat or fish in a cage / tank fair on them (get that the right way round BTW) If nobody rode horses, there would be thousands never born. If pet shops didn’t sell rabbits, ours would never have been born and although I can’t be sure they’re happy, they certainly are very well looked after, safe, loved and have a hell of a place to live. Cats are possibly the exception to the rule (when allowed out) as they tolerate their owners and would never come back if not happy. If cats keep coming back then can we extrapolate that other similar animals do enjoy their lives with us? I’m guessing we’ve all seen happy dogs?
Why do pets come back? Food would be a major drive for them to return to where they know they get an easy meal. Also shelter from the weather
You even see that with feral/community cats if someone leaves some food out for them, they will start to return knowing that there is the likelihood of free/easy meal, otherwise they would need to go and hunt/scavange for it.
Yes, there are exceptions in regards to ‘working’ dogs but the need to define and clarify what constitute as working is another rabbit hole to go down
Domestication of animals has been one of the ways that mankind has progressed.
Dogs have always been part of the stone age man’s life. As have horses , cows etc.
As far as keeping pets go , if the humans are able to keep the pets happy and are taking care of them , and the pets do make them happy as well. I’m all for it.
I don’t look at people dressing up the dogs etc as a fashion statement or any other way of expression. That’s a minority and that is borderline cruelty.
Guide dogs. Incredible creatures and an amazing, seriously fantastic scheme. Fair on the dogs?
Birds can be tamed (wild) if you put the effort in. Feed them regularly, talk to them etc, they’ll soon be literally eating out of your hands. With cats though, be under no illusion, they’re smarter than us.
There’s worse treatment of animals going on right now , whether it be slaughtering them for food , poaching , hunting , despoiling the natural environment etc etc.
Yes, didn’t mention this in the opening as it opens the meat eating veggie debate which this isn’t. Sheep the exception for wool. I’d rather live to maturity on a nice farm than never exist.
We had a parrot once that never came back… Once someone left the window open by mistake… It was off, never to be seen again.
It was quite famous with the kids in the road, because the only thing my Dad had painstakingly taught it to say over many many months…Was " Help me, I’ve been turned into a parrot "
Well he thought it was hilarious, and so did all the little kids in the area - Still laugh about what he did to this day. Especially picturing the look of shock on whoever found/discovered our parrot sitting on their fence… and it uttering the only sentence it had ever learnt :0)
Human domestication of animals is a symbiotic relationship. It’s easy to forget that the humans were domesticated as much as the animals were. Not having to hunt animals and being able to use others for hunting and protection has had an effect on human evolution as well. Most modern domestic animals are evolved to exist alongside and with humans.
You are looking here mainly at companion animals. The animal does get advantages from the relationship as well as they usually well fed, protected and sheltered. However, there will always be limitations on how the animal can express itself. A caged bird will be limited in it’s activity. Do house cats miss being able to go out and commit atrocities?
I think going back to your original theme of whether it appropriate to dress up animals; there is a difference between whether this is for the animals protection (e.g. a high vis jacket or a greyhound coat in winter) and simply taking the piss out of an animal for Facebook likes.
Zoos aren’t what they used to be anymore. Back in the day they were purely money making/entertainment products, with the animals best interests low down the list of importance, and focus on getting numbers through the doors.
Now, zoo’s are doing a lot for conservation and education - essentially they are doing good and are no longer just a sideshow/attraction.
I’ve never been a fan of how it all started - going out and capturing wild animals. But now they’re mostly captive bred, and often are captive bred and released back into the wild.
Could an outright ban on zoo’s do harm on progress being made would be the question.
From what I’ve seen, aquariums (sea life centre etc) rely on wild caught fish. That can fuck off, especially the keeping of orca’s and the sort - but that leads to another whole furry rabbit hole - we humanise certain species to mean more than others with a blink of an eye.
People wouldn’t stamp on a small bird or bunny rabbit that were to stray into their living room - but a spider - no probs.
They would still exist as feral/wild animals, but would most likely be very different to hiw they look due to the lack of selective breeding designed to enhance certain traits or characteristics
Zoos leap up and down to shout as loudly as possible to talk about conservation. Signal that virtue folks and keep charging £100 for a family of 4 at Chester Zoo. Same with Sea World and any dolphin encounter you choose to visit.
Meerkats in a large safe environment, fine. Does a spider / snake in a tank have a clue? Probably not. But a bird in an aviary? Cage? Not sure there.
As for pandas, fruck em, useless bastards. But they’re unbelievably gorgeous creatures.
Only because they have to now. It’s like cigarettes having warning on them and big signs up. They have to do that to sell them. Same with zoos as above.
They only exist in their current form domestically and that is from selective breeding. There are plenty of extinct animal breeds simply because people decided they no longer fitted a useful purpose.
If they had been left wild then, whilst they would still exist, they would be very different in both looks and characteristics which have been targeted by humans through selective breeding for hundreds if not thousands of years for docilisty, meat value (both quality of meat and the amount of meat produced) the growth rate of animals for food - look at the way turkeys have been selectively bred in the last 50-60 years to ensure the highest meat growth for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
