Your animals aren't your kids.

The BBQ Pit
1

Some select quotes from this IMHO thread about what you would pay to get your pet fixed up by a vet.

Newsflash, idiots: Unless you’re actually talking about your baby goats, your animals ARE NOT YOUR FUCKING KIDS.

They didn’t form from your sperm cells merging with an egg. They don’t contain your genes. Not one of your animals is worth more than a single actual kid on this entire planet.

In case you’re wondering, this doesn’t appear to be just a figure of speech from these folks. This is from people who apparently would risk their house to pay for medical treatment for their pets.

While spending every cent you’ve ever earned, and selling your house and your car and going into credit card debt to pay for an actual kid’s medical treatment makes perfect sense. . .if you do it for an animal, you’re a fucking moron. There are other animals out there (and actual kids) who could benefit from the money you’re wasting.

Just because you’ve developed a completely out-of-whack emotional attachment to an animal who only likes you because you feed it and pet it doesn’t make it your fucking kid.

You could have saved the dog and all it’s children from a burning building and you know what. . .it doesn’t give a fuck. All it knows is that if it looks at your a certain way, you’ll feed it and/or massage it.

Sure, you might love your dog. It gives you companionship. It gives you something to laugh at. Something to do, a good reason to get out of the house. It acts happy when you come through the door because you feed it and play with it. It’s easy to buy a dog’s affection (that’s what some are bred for). None of that makes it a kid.

I’m sorry that the circumstances of your life have actually got you to the point where you are calling your dogs your kids. If you’re doing that, then I suspect you have missed out on actual love from actual people. So, sorry about that. . . but hear this: it still doesn’t make a dog anything like a kid.

I don’t even have kids. I’ve had dogs since I was 1 years old and I have two now. Two dogs that my wife and I enjoy very much, but they’re not kids. My dog isn’t worth the pinky toe on the actual boy who lives next door to me.

2

I could swear we’ve done this Pit thread before.

3

See also: kids.

Daniel

4

Yeah, we did. Somebody started talking about their “fur babies”.

5

metaphor

n : a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity

6

Oh, and I wasn’t referring to the “fur babies.” That was just nutty.

7

Me too. But I searched and couldn’t find it. And, I’m pissed TODAY, dammit.

“The Thread”

n: Something you might actually want to read before talking out your ass.

8

I have a bigger problem with people who don’t like animals than with those who lavish them with love and attention. Is there a line? Sure. But I can’t dislike someone because they have a huge amount of love and compassion for a lesser animal. I might find them peculiar, but certainly not unlikeable.

9

I predict that this thread will end in disaster for all.

BTW, it was me who introduced “fur babies” in that other thread. I’d heard a FOAF use it. At the time I thought it was cute. I had no idea that otherwise perfectly sane people would get so squicked out by it.

10

You’re an idiot for posting this. If you actually believe it, you’re a hopeless idiot.
Trunk is dead right. An animal is just an animal. However much value you put on your feelings for it, an animal it remains.

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It’s right here on the front page.

12

The little boy I adopted from Ukraine did not form from my sperm cells merging with an egg either. Does that make him a puppy?

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Newsflash, idiot. People can have views that differ from yours on the relative importance of various species without being idiots.

In addition, it’s perfectly reasonable to have more feeling for a human that you get a positive emotional response from than a complete stranger. It seems to me that unless you have some special attraction to your own species (which, frankly, I don’t–I mean, do you read the news? People are generally fucked up and pretty damn dumb) it’s pretty rational to care more about something you get emotional satisfaction from (like your cat/dog/fish/slime mold) than about something that you don’t (some random dude 400 miles away, or the neighbors you’ve never spoken to).

Do you complain when people spend shitloads of money on their classic cars or their other hobby? Or is it just pets that get the bile flowing? If so, how is the guy who blows scads of money on his cat’s surgery any different from the guy who spends all his money tricking out his 1967 Mustang or whatever?

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Oh, but dogs and cats ARE the new kids (like Hispanic are the new blacks).

It has gotten to the point that if I say I don’t want a dog–I am looked at funny and questioned about that. But you have kids! they cry. Dogs are great companions! they declaim. We love our ________(fill in breed or if truly PC humane society pick here). Are you afraid of dogs? (implication: what is wrong with you?)

That’s great–enjoy your dog. While I’ll enjoy my poop free rugs, lack of fleas, no vet bills, no getting up at 0600 to walk outside in the pouring rain etc. Please control your dog–no I don’t want my face licked. No, it is not cute how he sniffs my crotch. Oh, look-the dog is in the garbage again–call the neighbors and tell them to come get Fido out of our garbage cans…*
I like dogs–I think they’re great. I just dont’ want one. To me, dogs are babies that never grow up. And the thought that you cannot replace a dog or cat is somewhat nonsensical. Your dog dies and you can’t go down to the pound and get another one --a companion who will follow you around (that drives me nuts), look at you with puppy eyes and vomit on your bed? That has never made any sense to me-they are there and too many of them thanks to irresponsible pet ownership.

But speak of this observation to dog 'lovers" and prepare to be dressed down, lectured to or even yelled at. “you just don’t understand” is usually the retort.

I guess I don’t.

I have a cat–a fat middle aged crabby cat. We got him from the humane society (who almost didn’t give him to us because we wouldn’t get 2 cats, :rolleyes: ) and he had been returned there. Say what you will about people returning pets like sweaters they’ve changed their mind about, but at least they didn’t just let him out and not let him back in. We liked him and we took him in. We’ve had him for 5 years. The kids like him. When he dies-I’m not getting another pet for a long time. I don’t need the extra work or the expense. To each his own, but some (not all) pet owners aren’t happy with that. They need you to approve of their pet and their choices. They need others to share in this joy of pet relations. I don’t.

I don’t understand the religion of pet ownership. have your pets–be kind to them. There is no need to infantilize them or elevate them to human status (honorary). It’s a pet–it’s an animal. Yes, they have personalities, so? There are other dog comedians out there, other royal cats, other excellent guard dogs etc.

  • as stated above, I have a cat–so the joys of puke and all that are not unknown to me.
15

Biologically speaking, what do you think humans are?

As to the OP - meh. Who gives a fuck? Different people, different priorities.

16

If the guy in question impoverishes himself over the 1967 Mustang, then he is an idiot too.

This is always the fallback position for the parents of fur-babies. My animals are like my kids because [some] people are evil. :rolleyes:

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Even Ukrainians have human genes.

It’s not. People can piss away money in all kinds of ways. But some people like to pretend they’re not pissing.

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Biologically, they are my own species.

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Plus, they stink.

20

I’m neutral on animals. I see no reason for them to suffer unnecessarily, and I also see no reason to have them fouling up my house.

How people feel about their animals is their business. They’re not hurting anyone. How people choose to spend their money is their own business. That said, I’ve known people who take unscheduled time off of work to deal with a sick (**not ** dying, or needing immediate medical attention, just for the sake of clarification) pet, and actually say, out loud, *“Well, if your kid was sick, no one would mind if you leave.” *

I don’t mind when people care as much about their dog as I do about my kid. What I do mind is when people expect *me * to care as much about their dog as I do about my kid. Or, for that matter, when they expect anyone to care as much about any random dog as they do about any random kid. No matter how much you love animals, the children are , to borrow a phrase, our future. The dogs? Only if the children *royally * fuck it up.