this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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I think having pets is fundamentally unethical. Your dog lives in a tiny fraction of the world with absolutely no agency and only “loves” you because it is literally programmed to after centuries of breeding for traits that promote that. Your pet did not choose you and if it “loves” you at all, it’s only because they are utterly dependent on you because they have been taken far from where their species can survive or that place has been ruined by humanity. Animals cannot consent period and by extension cannot and never do consent to being property.
I’m not a PETA freak. I don’t shame people for having pets, but I’m unable to think of pets without considering these facts and it makes the entire thing seem gross and wrong to me. I rarely bring it up because it never leads to an engaging or productive conversation. No one ever really has an argument against it besides something along the lines of “Humans have had pets for millennia” or “It’s too late to put them back” which don’t actually prove me wrong in any way.
Domestication is interesting because your average German shepherd is arguably living a significantly higher quality of life than a wolf living in the wild. While they may not have the same "freedom" as a wolf living in the woods, the wolf lives in its own shackles, always fighting for food, shelter and protection from predators. While I don't disagree that having pets is fundamentally a problematic concept, I also think its always a bad idea to attribute abstract human traits and concepts onto animals, most of which want food, water, safe territory, and engagement.
Almost every animal specialist I talked to never talks about animals as if they were people, they always have a sense of respect for them being an animal and of a different species. I suppose they have a greater understanding of what an animal "wants".