Definitely an interesting article regarding the nature of pets and whether we should have them.
Should We Stop Keeping Pets?
One little blurb from the article:
[Crucially, our animals can’t tell us whether they are happy being pets. “There is an illusion now that pets have more voice than in the past … but it is maybe more that we are putting words into their mouth,” Pierce says, pointing to the abundance of pets on social media plastered with witty projections written by their “parents”. “Maybe we are humanising them in a way that actually makes them invisible.”]
First, I haven't read the article yet, so I'm not commenting on its point(s). However, as a multi-decade animal rights activist (now just advocate, since I can't be active!), I've asked myself this, and many other pet-related questions many times.
One thing I'm often asked, as a vegan, is "aren't you a hypocrite for feeding your pets animal products?" Why, no, thank you, I don't believe I am! I *rescued* every one of my pets. They would've died one way or another if not for being brought into my family. *I* choose to be vegan because--as a HUMAN, I do not NEED meat or other animal products, to live a perfectly healthy, happy, delicious food life. They, on the other hand, specifically cats, cannot be vegan, as they require taurine, which is only found in animals. My Great Danes were vegetarian; however, that actually stemmed from Little Freddie's allergy problems.
We'd been battling nasty allergies for awhile, and my vet finally narrowed it down to food. So she put him on a prescription diet; the dry food consisted of only two ingredients, fish and potatoes, neither of which is much risk for allergies. Well, whatever one of my 'kids' had, the other wanted, so when Freddie switched to prescription food....VERY EXPENSIVE prescription food...his sister, Queenie, would no longer eat her food, so for a solid year I fed them both the prescription food exclusively. Do you know how much it costs to feed two 180-ish pound Great Danes prescription food? A LOT!!! So, after a year (in which Freddie's skin completely cleared up) and with my vet's blessing, I transitioned them to Nature's Recipe Vegetarian Allergy Formula; they thrived on that for their remaining years.
As for pets being happy as pets, all I can say is come visit my house! You're going to see four very content, playful, happy, well-fed, healthy cats and one similar dog (technically not my dog, but she's treated as if she is). Every one of them would've died if not for being rescued. Sure, I could open the door and let them run free--to be confronted by coyotes, 4,000 pound vehicles, cruel people, diseases that can't be vaccinated against, thieves who sell pets to vivisectionists, etc. If you ask THEM, I'm 100% sure they'd say they want to stay with me!
