Is Having Pets Evil?
Perhaps having pets is a bit... evil? Ok maybe evil is an exaggeration, but it's pointing in the direction I'm thinking. Obviously having a pet and abusing it is evil, but I'm talking about just regular old, everyday pet ownership. Just a heads up, this is gonna come across super disjointed. I'm just dumping my thoughts really, not trying to build a structured argument.
I'm gonna sidestep the whole matter of whether or not existence itself is good or bad. I'll start at step two, the dog/cat/fish/lizard/bird already exists. Is it wrong to then keep it as a pet?
At first, I'm inclined to say 'no'. But is that just because pet ownership is so normalised? I want to take a step back and think about what it entails. You have to take this animal from its natural habitat/life cycle and bring it into an artificial one where you care for it, to the point that if you stop, it would likely die without you. And in order to keep it, you either chain it, fence it in, or keep it in a cage/tank. What kind of existence is that?
But what about the good that comes from having a pet? If there wasn't a positive side for the owners, no one would have pets. And so as a human (I'm willing to reveal at least that much about myself), I do value the well-being of humans over that of animals. I take no issue with people having seeing-eye dogs. Or keeping horses for ranching purposes. Their usefulness to humans I think justifies the arrangement, assuming they are treated properly. But when it comes to someone who just wants to have a canary because they sing nice songs, I start to see gray. Sure the songs may make you happy, but is that enough to warrant keeping this bird in a cage, never letting it fly? Never letting it interact with another of its kind? Never letting it reproduce? Never letting it eat anything beyond the store bought seeds that aren't part of its natural diet? At that point, just throw on a CD with bird songs and listen to those if you must.
Now, in a way, you are 'saving' it from a potentially torturous existence in nature. Look, predators gotta eat something. But at least in nature, it is fulfilling its role. The environment that animal belongs in has a role for it. If all the canaries disappeared from the wild, who knows the catastrophic second- and third-order effects that would have. So in that way, the canary is 'more useful' in the wild than in your house. Now does that make it wrong to keep it in your house... well maybe. I'm feeling like it does.
(I was gonna say 'In conclusion' but I've certainly not structured this in any way that would require a conclusion) In the end, I don't know if I'll keep any pets. I feel bad for them. Knowing they are being deprived of that which their instincts guide them toward. Perhaps it's just a bit of projection that I can see myself in them. Kept in a world totally divorced from the one their wants/desires/instincts are for. Deprived of the life that they should naturally live. All thanks to the humans around them...
Yours Truly,
[Redacted]