I don’t agree with this at all (the second part). Human beings didn’t create the cat. Sure, we bred different animals together to select for certain traits, but still, all the essential structure that makes cats function – organs, DNA, proteins, etc. already existed. So who the hell are we to say why cats exist, or even that there is a reason? Just because we use them for a certain purpose doesn’t mean that their ability to serve that purpose is the sole criterion on which to judge the value of their existence. And just because we choose to consider them property doesn’t give us the right to treat them like a man-made artifact to be used and discarded as we please.
But at any rate, even if pets have no inherrent value whatsoever, in my experience the level of compassion a person has for animals is almost always indicitive of that person’s overall character. I certainly don’t think the author of the article is some sort of monster, but the fact that she could have her cat killed because he’d “ceased to be an acceptable [pet]” doesn’t speak well of her.
Off on a bit of a tangent: It’s basically what Jeep’s Phoenix said.
To expand on it slightly, many captive-bred and hand-raised pet snakes are conditioned to take pre-killed food. These are generally the best sort of snakes to have as pets in the first place, as they’re used to humans and accustomed to handling.
Live food has the potential to severely injure a pet snake (you can’t really blame it, after all, it’s fighting to survive), and is thus generally considered a bad idea if you can avoid it. On the other hand, sometimes it’s unavoidable: wild-caught pet snakes often won’t identify anything that’s not moving as potential food.
Well, assuming you aren’t referring to the ancestral wild cats, then humans did indeed create what we know of as the modern domestic/feral cat, through many generations of selective breeding. More importantly, we also provided an environment in which the domestic cat could reproduce freely, with little in the way of population control. If cats had never been domesticated, I highly doubt that there would be so many of them.
It’s pretty much the same as for any domesticated animal. Probably 90% of the world’s chickens wouldn’t even exist if humans didn’t have a use for them. Same as for cows, sheep, etc.
I’m married, but I’ve read bits of “advice to singles” and many times they do tell singles that pet ownership is one way of meeting others. Wasn’t there a movie out recently titled “Must Love Dogs”? I didn’t see it, but am just presuming it is a common scenario.
But I don’t know if you can use pet photos on a dating site as an indicator of how important animals really are in the life of the person posting them. They might just be using the animal as a marketing tool, which to me, is similar to your example of keeping dogs and cats for protection and utility. What do you say? Maybe it’s not as much of a “dealbreaker” as you think.
My husband and I both come from a culture that respects animals, but neither of us had pets growing up. We took in the first cat shortly after we were married. I came home from work and found her on my doorstep (a neighbor had moved and left the cat behind). I took pity on her and brought her in for some milk, and it just went on from there.
Initially, my husband was not quite as enthusiastic as I was, but we were newlyweds - let’s just say I easily won him over. And then in time the cat won him over as well. But it could have gone another way. If the cat had turned out to be troublesome, or dirty, or destructive, we might not have been so complacent about keeping her in this first experience with an animal in the house. Another factor might have been that we were newlyweds, and the cat satisfied our then romantic notion of having a child together before we were ready or financially able to do so.
Twelve years later, we have a house, two children, and seven cats. Yes, seven (actually four permanent and three temporary fosters). If I didn’t have the luxury of the house (the cats have their own quarters in the basement, and even their own bathroom), free vet care (thanks to BIL), and non-allergic and helpful children (not to mention an accepting husband), I wouldn’t be able to do it, nor would I want to, most likely. And we know that the idea of seven cats in the house sounds crazy, and if you told us twelve years ago we’d end up with this many, we would have thought you were crazy. But that is how it happens sometimes.
Sorry about the long personal anecdote, but my point is that there are individual stories behind comments on messageboards that claim to either love, hate, or “have no feelings” for animals. I can be opinionated and fiesty, but I wouldn’t want to pre-judge an individual without understanding what is behind those comments. The same might apply to your dating site example (just some “singles advice” from an old married woman ;)).
If that is a mis-characterization, then I apologize - I didn’t read the old threads others have alluded to.
This wasn’t part of my original point either, but if you don’t mind, I am curious about it. Do you think this “no feeling” is part of your nature, or something you’ve developed in yourself because of circumstance?
I ask because it was something I tried to do when I stayed at my Uncle’s farm (where I had my chicken killing experiences). And it went against my own nature. Yes, it did get a bit easier after the first experience (which was very bad for me), but I was never able to reach the point you suggest.
What about people who only love a certain breed of dog or cat? I know a man who extols the virtues of Dobermann Pinschers, and disparages all other dogs (I didn’t ask him about any other species).
IMO, all this says more about the person than the animals in question.
Maybe there is a spectrum of feelings, with people who “love animals too much” on one end (there was a funny episode on South Park about that), and animal abusers and torturers on the other end (which is a recognized symptom of a psychological problem).
I’d guess most people would fall in the middle of that. But how can we measure the “love” or “hate” of animals? Many times it is just lip service.
And how can you know when you’ve “crossed the line” on one end or another?
Oh, absolutely. We were talking about the people, after all. And I imagine “breed elitists” are just as annoying to “species elitists” as the latter are to people who prefer other types of pet.
The unfortunate consequence is that the pets tend to bear the brunt of the consequences for their owners’ poor behavior. A wandering cat is going to dig in flowerbeds, shit in the yard, spray urine, and kill local wildlife–that’s just what cats do, and it’s pointless to blame them for it. On the other hand, the owner that can’t bear to keep kitty inside has in effect said that their cat’s desire to wander trumps their neighbors’ wishes to have a catshit-free, dead-wildlife-free yard, an attitude I find, at the very least, extremely presumptuous. Unfortunately, as it’s often impossible to know which wandering cats belong to which owners, it’s the cats that end up on the receiving end of rage which should be directed at their clueless owners.
I think you’re right; in any area of human emotion, there’s going to be a spectrum of feeling. And I don’t think there’s any “objective” way to measure love or hate of animals, any more than there is to measure love or hate of anything else.
Crossing the line I think is similarly subjective, depending on who you’re dealing with.
I have noticed the irrational hostility you speak of. Some people seem to get angry at any mention of spending money or resources towards the compassionate treatment of animals. The putative justification being that it diverts resources away from helping humans. Of course, any luxory spending at all on anything (DVDs, books, going to a fancy restaurant) is diverting resources away from needy humans… but of course they remain silent on those subjects. :rolleyes:
If I had a dating site, I would put up a picture of my cat because she is much cuter than I.
Also, I am a generic animal lover, dogs, cats, rodents, reptiles, horses, birds, (ok, so I don’t like cows), fish, etc. and my cat would love to meet your hamster, she likes to look at them and smell them but she is also scared of them after a bad experience with a gunea pig. I also eat animals, because, lets face it, they’re food from birth.
But, pets are pets and livestock is livestock. Crafter Man’s cats are different than my cat. I know, because I have had both types of cats. The bottom line is that when you take responsibility for a pet, you are making a comitment to that pet to take care of it and do what you can so it lives a healthy, happy life. The cat in the article was not a happy cat and it is too bad that it never got the chance to have a happy life.
