What is the purpose of having a pet?

Great Debates
21

I share my home with cats because I enjoy cats. I enjoy snuggling with them and watching them. The current pair are quite active and playful, and I love to watch them run the Kitty Deathrace 500 on a nightly basis. Loving an animal is a different experience from loving another human, though it does have some of the parent-child elements in it.

One of the cats in the Bodoni household is definitely MY cat, and the other one is definitely my daughter’s. Both cats like the other humans in the household, and in fact my cat likes just about every human she meets, but there’s a real bond between the cat and his or her person. My cat prefers to be in the same room with me most of the time, even if she is only napping. She will supervise my showers, and my daughter’s cat will also watch HIS mom take a shower. We humans can play and act and talk silly with the cats, and this is a stress reliever. And we know that the cats love us, and want to be with us.

I like to watch animal shows on TV, including (but not limited to) big cat specials. I just find these animals to be interesting and attractive. Now, I’ll never have a big cat as a pet, and I’ll probably never even touch one. But I like to watch them anyway, to see how they act.

When my daughter was in grade school, about second grade or so, she became depressed. She was dyslexic, but hadn’t been diagnosed as such, and she couldn’t read well at all. She felt dumb and very frustrated. We took her to a psychologist, who diagnosed her and helped us find a tutor for her. He also worked on her self-esteem problems for a while (and she desperately needed that help). One of the things he told us was to get a dog that could be HER dog, if she didn’t have one. We told him that she had a cat which was HER cat, followed her around, and was constantly loving on her. He said that this was good, because the animal companions provide unconditional love. This shrink had all kinds of credentials, so I’d say he probably knew what he was talking about.

My younger brother has severe Crohn’s disease, and he copes with it much better now that he has adopted a couple of rescued Greyhounds. He has a wonderful wife, but he has always loved dogs and he gets a lot of comfort from their company. By the way, Greyhounds are amazingly sweet dogs, I was surprised.

The major downside to having pets is losing them. It’s very hard to see them die, and it’s even harder to make the decision to have them put to sleep. But that’s the price of their love.

22

Slaves make me feel good, too.

Oh, wait, this isn’t 1860.

23

If you’re going to be like that I give up. You’re weird.
Give me/us a good reason not to have a pet. (before I go somewhere else and forget about this thread)

24

AKA, “I’m not trying to listen.”

25

Like someone else suggested, this thread should be moved to the Pit.

Even though you claim you just “want to know why”, your attitude suggests that you want pet owners to justify ownership in arguments framed to appeal to you.

My parents got me a Pomenarian (actually, I picked her out) when I was 5. She died (almost suddenly) a month before I turned 19.

I certainly did not like the dog because I was an egomaniac with a deep sunconscious need to have absolute power. That purported reason is especially amusing and ironic, considering that she was very stubborn and of her own mind. The only member of the family to whom she would almost unconditionally give affection was my Dad.

Dogs as pets are wonderful because they bring spontaneous life to a home in a way that humans don’t. They don’t offer unconditional love. If they did, less people would have them, since it would get boring after a while.

Dogs are in that niche of evolutionary development where they express emotion similar to infants, but not the very intricate psychology of behavioural interaction that accompanies cognition in primates. This allows a special kind of bonding experience.

26

So paying for the acquisition of a pet, as well as the subsequent necessities (such as food and medical bills) constitutes buying love?

Under that definition, why do people feel the need to buy love from a baby/child?

Except that pets are not slaves. They are not forced to perform labor against their will, nor are they generally mistreated. They may be confined to a cage/house/yard, but then small children are often confined to a playpen/house/yard, too. I guess children are slaves, huh?

27

“A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy”. I’d bet good money that if you rifled through escapol’s sock drawer you’d find a PETA membership card.

28

escapol, if you can’t understand the love of a pet, you’re in a sad, sad way.

sorry about your loss.

29

It is a beautiful thing when something so simple as a pet can love you for who you are. Like said earlier: they don’t care if you are fat, or in a wheelchair, etc.

My spirits rose when I would see my now deceased Budgie follow me around the house just to be in my company. (It’s wings were clipped at the time, so it would have to waddle around to find me in the house. Sigh, I miss him.)

30

This is like asking “Why do people have friends?” Everyone has a different answer for this, just like if you ask someone “What is a friend?” you’ll get varied answers. If you really wanted to, you could go through life with minimal social contact and not have anyone like you. But I suppose we’re all horribly selfish creatures to go out and talk to people just so we can take advantage of them to satisfy our urge to be liked.

For many people, there’s no real “purpose” to having pets, just like there’s no purpose to schools or weddings or concerts. Pets bring enjoyment into our lives and while we could certainly live without them, life just wouldn’t be the same.

That doesn’t work, because if we had such a subconscious need, we would already satisfy that with children, moreso in fact. If a dog or cat runs away, chances are it’ll fare better in the wild than a human child would.

What’s wrong with that, really? If you pay the clone for his services, then it’s no different than hiring a personal body guard. Of course, a dog can’t make it in normal society, so paying professional guard dogs with money wouldn’t do them much good. Instead we pay them by giving them a good home, food, and companionship. It beats sitting in an animal shelter.

Why make multiple friends? Isn’t one enough? I guess having more than one friend is a sure sign of social desperation.

31

I have several different pets and I have them for differing reasons.
I currently have an aquarium that I simply enjoy for the aestheic qualities as well as being interested in the interactions of the fish themselves.
I have a chameleon that is just plain cool as hell to watch. I don’t really have any more attachment to him then I do the fish. Neither can really respond to anyone on a personal level. I also have finches in the cage with the chameleon (it is a really large, walk-in, aviary type setup) and they are cool to watch nest and raise young. It is fun to watch the occassional disagreements between them and the chameleon (which likes high places).
There are a couple of frogs and another lizard that I am unsure of its name. Oh, and about 50-100 crickets running around in there. (the chirrping is a nice pleasant sound also.
None of these animals are really what I consider a “pet” however. They are fun and interesting to watch but don’t give much back otherwise.

I also have a vey intelligent Conure and a couple of dogs. These animals are “pets”. They are intelligent enough to know me and respond as well as show loyalty and protectiveness toward me. They are all very loving and are quite simply “friends” of mine. I do not train them per se or compel any kind of service from them, yet they seem to have learned my habits and just fir nicely into my life.

In case you are wondering, I also have a very satisfying social life with many “friends” as well as knowing a few people that I tend to observe in a manner much more reminicent of my aviary…

32

Where I work we used to have a problem with feral cats.

Their problem is that they will breed until they have outstripped the resources availabe to them, and in doing so cause havoc wild nearby wildlife. Add to this the constant threat of a long, painful and lingering death and its not hard too see that being feral is not always in the best interests of the animal.

What I did, mostly me but also a couple of others, was to trap them and get them neutered, to keep their numbers under control, and any litters that turnesd up unexepectedly because one cat had not been done, I caught and found homes.

Result was that I must have found homes for nearly 30 kittens, and boy am I glad that folk like to have pets, the alternative for those kittens I have already described.

Last year there was a serious threat that the few remaining would be poisoned, and since poisoning is not a particularly accurate method of delivering a lethal dose in an animal as intelligent as a cat, the chances of extremely painful death were very high.
One cat was in fact poisoned with rat compound, and warfarin is just not a nice way to go.

The problem is that folk prefer to own cats from very young as they ‘take’ to the human ‘master’ better, and feral cats are not at all easily homed.

I had the choice of catching them to be destroyed, and destroying healthy animals for no good purpose runs counter to the sort of person I am, thus I ended up with all six of them at home.

Coincidentally they are good companions, but very independant.

So escopol am I a slavemaster ?

33

I like my cat.

I like the way she behaves, I like the affection she gives me, I like playing with her. I like making her “happy”. I care about her almost as if she were a child. I like the way she looks, and the way she behaves.

Is she therefore a living ‘toy’ for me and my wife to play with? Maybe, but believe me, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. She is no slave - she is a demanding little personality; my wife and I grant her wishes as if she were a princess.

Remember that cats and dogs are evolved to be with humans. They began as wild animals, and became domestic. And while there has been selective breeding in the past few millennia, the origins of the species came about through mutual evolutionary advantage. If wolves hadn’t found an advantage to living and hunting with humans, or Egyptian wild cats had not become ‘human friendly’ round grain stocks to feast on vermin, these animals would not have evolved into pets.

We have bred them, but they have bred us too.

34

My parents never wanted a dog, but then completely by accident, we got to be “dog owners” some 15 years ago nevertheless. The alternative for the dog would have been to be brought to an animal shelter.

Caring and being responsible for a life is indeed a wonderful thing and as a side note I would want to see more people tending for animals before they try to raise kids.

So, is having children a power issue or the desire to have slaves as well in your opinion? Because early on there are several similarities between the two.

The comparison is flawed anyway, because slaves were “held” to provide cheap labor, pets don’t do that. On the contrary, pets are a financial burden, but one that is gladly shouldered, because pet owners love their animals.

35

It really sounds to me as if the OP has his mind nailed shut on this particular issue, and nothing any of us says is going to get through. We have a cat, several fish, and an aquatic turtle, but I’m not going to explain why we have any of them, because the OP will think it’s wrong, regardless of what I say, and the rest of you don’t need an explanation; you already understand.

36

I wonder what approach escapol would have humanity take to animals.

If we say that we can only have contact with animals when there is a provable practical reason for owning one, such as food, materials, and work, then what we are in fact doing is objectivising them.

We are ensuring that humans will see animals only as a resource to be exploited, I doubt this is what the OP would really like to see.

By having animals as pets, we can learn about ourselves, they teach us in unintended ways, when a beloved pet rabbit dies, it shows the child that we ourselves are mortal and it shows us how to keep lesser considerations in perspective.

It teaches humans, children and adults alike about commitment and responsibility.
We learn a little more about the natural world around us, take away our pets and we may become completely divorced from this.

The OP seems to have eft the building, shame because some reply would be nice, but not from some propagandist svengali telling the OP what to think, lets hear it from the OP direct.

37

My cat friends are valuable because I have a hard time making human friends. There. I said it.

My cats don’t laugh at me for being clumsy. They don’t tease me about my choices in music or hairstyles or weekend activities. They don’t talk about me behind my back and turn others against me. I can trust them with my secrets and not have to worry that they’ll go spilling the beans. I can’t trust humans the same way.

They listen to me play the piano. They act as an audience when I need to practice an important speech or talk. They come to me at night when I’m feeling lonely and can’t go to sleep. They snuggle against me and remind me that I’m a living creature just like them. I look at them and the way they love each other, and my belief in God is affirmed.

I know it’s a pathetic. I know I imagine most of what my cats do, think, and feel. But it still makes me feel like I have friends when I’m around them. Without them I’d be so sick and lonely that I’d post mean, cynical things on a message board under the guise of “understanding”.

38

I have an “accidental” pet. The ex-girlfriend of a buddy of mine had to give up a Pomeranian, and me and my buddy both take care of it. About half the time he’s at my place and the other half at his. Technically, the dog is my buddy’s, though.

I had no intention of loving the little beast, but I do. I’m happy to see him, he’s happy to see me. I enjoy sitting with him on my lap, and scrathing him behind the ears. He likes it too.

I enjoy throwing a ball, and him chasing and retrieving it. He loves that. I think he’d pull out of coma if he heard a racquetball bounce.

He likes licking my face and ears when I lie down to bed at night. I like that too.

It’s simply two beings that like to interact with each other. There’s no buying of love, he’s no slave.

escapol, you clearly have no intention of trying to understand something beyond your preconceived notions. I hope for your sake you are young and can change this behavior. Good luck.

39

Because your parents’ dog will lie down in the middle of the hall, and when you’re walking down the hall in the middle of the night in the dark, you’ll trip over her. I must have tripped over that damn dog five nights a week. :slight_smile:

But, seriously, while I’m not a big pet lover, there’s no question that people get emotionally attached to their pets. My mom cried when we had to put the dog to sleep, and I wasn’t feeling so great about it myself, and my grandmother’s cat was company for her when she was home alone. That’s what people get out of it.

So, what do animals get out of it? Mostly, a regular food source, a warm place to sleep, safety from predators, and medical care.

So, it’s a win-win relationship for both sides.

40

Owner of five cats here (well, we also have a dog but I don’t like her very much).

Cats are cute, cuddly, soft and friendly. They’re funny and provide free entertainment. (Well, not free, per se-we do feed and shelter them). They like to snuggle and purr and they only want your attention. Like others have said, they don’t care if you have acne or if you’re rich or poor.

Cats COME potty-trained. Even human children don’t do that.
As for them being my slaves, I think it’s the other way around.