THE ETHICS OF BUYING “PET OWNERSHIP” AND HOW TO SWITCH PERSPECTIVE
Info: The term “pet” is used is only used to demonstrate the usage of the word in a purchasing-animal context. Animals are lifelong companions, not pets. The term “pet ownership” is used due to the unfortunate norm of still seeing someone as “an owner”. All should be more than clear after reading this blog post.
“Adopt don’t shop” is a commonly used phrase by people who have realized the importance of adoption when it comes to non-human animal companions (common term: pets) because there are millions of individuals in shelters and in need of help on the streets who need a loving and safe home.
In this blog post, I am going through why adoption is the only right choice, what shopping non-human animals does to the living individuals and their descendants and I share thoughts and opinion on how I would like to see “the companion situation” evolve in the future.
Dogs and cats are the most loved non-human animals by humans. They bring companionship (therefore: companions) and joy to our lives through their unique personalities they can embrace when they are living in a good home, a safe place, and well cared for. They are called “the human’s best friend”, fill homes with love and life and many would also agree with me that they are a part of the family they can’t imagine living without.
Pet lovers have at least learned to understand and see (up to a certain point) that animals want to live, they have just not yet realized that there is no difference between a dog, a cat, a chicken, a cow, a fish, etc. that would justify loving one but killing and consuming another. But this would be another separate blog post.
WHY DO PETS/COMPANIONS EXIST?
The history of pets is intertwined with the process of animal domestication, and it is likely that the dog, as the first domesticated species, was also the first companion. In history, domesticated non-human animals served a different purpose than the one of companionship (mostly) today, because they were held to serve humans to help with their work which included tending sheep, defending the home, and attacking prey. In return, dogs got supplied with food each day and safe shelter. Many would call this a “symbiotic working relationship”, I call it dominion and exploitation. Keep on reading why.
ANIMALS DON’T OWE US ANYTHING
Animals are not here for us. They are not here for our entertainment or taste, convenience, or traditions. They are sentient living beings, having interests in living a free life. A life, free of pain, free of suffering, free of confinement.
Yet some animals, domesticated animals, can’t live on their own anymore as the human species has bred away most of their survival instincts and characteristics (domestication) and made them dependent on us.
A companion living with us now doesn’t, therefore, owe us anything in return for shelter, but we owe this shelter, a good life, to them.
WHY HUMANS ARE NOT ANIMAL OWNERS
This can easily be explained in just one sentence and I think it is so important to address. We are not the owner of a companion, we are caregivers. Many see owning as a right to oppression. You can’t own another life, but your own. It is as simple as that. Every sentient being should have the right to bodily autonomy and free will. We are still far away from this idealistic but so obviously inherently right to life, but we need to start seeing this and living by it already.
You get now why language is so important when it comes to companionship and caregiving and when it comes to our relationship with non-human animals. This also emerges quite clearly in the learned definition “it”. “It” knowingly stands for an object. Animals are not objects and therefore no possession. They are someone, they are conscious, sentient, and alive. The words “pet” and “owner” suggest dominion over someone and we must remove those descriptions and meanings from our vocabulary.
BUYING ANIMALS KILLS ANIMALS
We have to internalize and see that when we buy animals, we kill them. We have to start to understand that our purchase exploits, imprisons, and kills animals.
Meat is the muscle fibers of a once-living being who did not want to die for a brief taste experience. What many people don't know and see (as I used to) is the dairy and egg industry, which exploits animals, captivates, and kills them after a horrible life of suffering and pain for human benefits.
Humans are self-proclaimed animal lovers. But ask yourself why there are still so many animals in shelters?
SHOPPING FOR PETS
Shopping for a pet leads to a demand for a certain breed. This leads to impregnating and keeping female dogs for the only benefit of selling their babies. Taking advantage of their bodies and their babies (for profits) is the exploitation and abuse of someone who should have their autonomy when it comes to their body and mind.
But that is not all. Breeders take the babies from their mothers after only 7-8 weeks, because that is the legal estimated time in which it is “okay” to take them away to sell them at a good price (the time span varies from country to country). After all, humans have obsessions with baby animals and they want them as young as they can to be “their mother/parents”. It is truly cruel if you think about it and put yourself into their position.
Breeding also leads to overbreeding and if the individuals can’t be sold they will either be abandoned anywhere outside, thrown into trash bins or dropped at or near an animal shelter. Many dogs and cats and other companions also get euthanized due to the rising numbers and crowded animal shelters.
Breeding and selling animals is a non-human animal slave trade.
If this isn’t upsetting you, I don’t know what is. Remember the phrase “legality does not equal morality”. Just because it is legal, doesn’t make it right. Breeding and selling animals is a non-human animal slave trade. No matter how you’d like to call it, THIS is what it is.
NON-HUMAN COMPANIONS PAY THE CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN IGNORANCE AND GREED
The common justification why people buy animals is “I don't know if I can handle a damaged/traumatized dog” and “I want a puppy”. Newsbreak, shelters are full of babies and not all are traumatized. If you don’t want animals to be traumatized, you should not buy them to be bred into existence for human demand so the leftover dogs (who are mostly too old to sell), wouldn’t have to be at shelters in the first place. Animal shelters also give a temporary home to puppies as an abandoned female might have already been pregnant or their babies are just left somewhere.
Animals make their own experiences and what someone calls “traumatized” is often just fear or uncertainty that can be reversed by positive training, and giving them the love, confidence, and empowerment they need and deserve. Ask yourself this:
Why is someone less worthy to you if they had a rough past? Aren’t those the ones that need and deserve the most love and care?
Somehow animals in shelters have this reputation of second-hand “use” (I won’t lie, I once felt the same way because of what society has taught me) that degrades their life value and their value of being loved.
When you look at this way of thinking you already notice that this speciesist and class-based thinking is everything that is wrong with humans. Non-human animals are seen as a commodity (even though many don’t want to admit to this), therefore it is easy to want “the new and the better pet” and people want them to behave a certain way to not be too much of a bother.
Why the hell do people even want to live with a non-human if they are not willing to take responsibility and put in the energy, love, and care the individual needs?
THE PET INDUSTRY
Purchasing pets have become a self-perpetuating industry, bred for a variety of purposes, including their exploitative value as breeding animals. Pets that are bred for aesthetic purposes may have full-fledged show careers. Other pets may be bred for racing or other competitive sports, around which sizable industries have been built.
It is on You to see the wrong-doings behind this oppressive and exploitative industry and bring it to an end.
THE FUTURE OF PETS/COMPANIONS
In an ideal world where companion animals are only adopted (and neutered so they don’t breed more animals who would grow up in shelters or on the streets) and not purchased anymore, we’d quickly see a world without suffering of stray animals because people take them in and care for them, but we’d also quickly see a world without companions because they are not bred into existence anymore. At least this is what it is leading up to.
Yes, of course, it would be sad to live without beloved cats and dogs and other companions, but this is a selfish reason to think, isn’t it? Well, it is inconvenient thinking and imagining for us because we don’t want to do without our companions.
But if that would mean that all the innocent individuals at killing factories don’t have to die and be murdered for human greed, and no individual needs to be at a shelter anymore, so it be. How do you feel about this?
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PLEASE NOTE
* When the term "human" is used, then human animals are meant by it, and the same applies to the term "animal", who are non-human animals.** When the term "pet" is used it is only to demonstrate the usage of the word in a purchasing-animal context. Animals are companions, not pets. It should be more than clear after reading this blog post.SOURCES
Earthling Ed - Have You Ever Thought About This? The Ethics of Pet Ownership | Cornell University
