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The Environment / Is it not time to question pet ownership?
« on: 16/03/2023 13:55:49 »Growing up, 40-odd years ago, my household had over the years: 2 cats, 2 terrapins, numerous hamsters and a load of fairground-won goldfish. The cats and the hamsters had few health issues and lived long lives. Unfortunately, the terrapins and the goldfish usually soon met their demise.
Those cats were amazing. They had so much personality.
Sadly, we now live in a time where the ecocide (/ climate change) is a daily topic of conversation. Because it's so obviously threatening nature, these days. How much - if at all - is pet ownership part of the problem? Does it need addressing? Is there an easy fix?
Firstly, I can't get over the fact that owning a conventional pet (say, cat / dog / hamster / budgie) encourages the ownership of more exotic animals (eg. tarantulas, snakes, frogs, stick insects). This in turn can be said to prop up the illegal trafficking of endangered species as pets.
Naturally, the vast majority of animals sold as pets will have been reared in the region / country they're being sold but there'll always be individuals who, with the money, want that extra unique pet that they just should not be acquiring. Not when so many illegally trafficked individuals die in transit. Not if we cherish the planet's biodiversity and wish to limit the number of species facing extinction on our watch.
All this together with: dog dirt, dog attacks, nuisance barking, songbird predation by cats and the fact that pets need feeding. More agrochemicals getting sprayed in their name. More livestock reared, too.
If you could magically trade an individual pet's life for a similar sized individual of a species endangered by humankind, would you? Would you not? Would you not rather see a wolf in the wild (or even in a zoo) than the domesticated monstrosities you can buy that often have been reared under horrible conditions and which can have defects as a result of genetic in-breeding? For example. (Not a great example - as I'm fairly sure wolves are not that endangered - but the point remains.)
Sure, they offer companionship to the lonely old person / the timid child, but is that not a shameful reflection on society? Treat the symptom instead of the cause logic?
I know this is going to be an unpopular post but I just can't see how any conscientious adult in this day and age could disagree with me, here. Maybe I'm just a miserable old killjoy, though!
What do you think?
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