Is pet ownership a sign of insanity?

Let me prephase this theory by letting you all know that I have never owned any sort of animal, nor do I think I ever will. I honestly can't understand what the attraction is to the idea, especially during supposedly trying economic times. You'd think the sheer cost of pet ownership would drive people away, but the stereotypes of the poor old "cat lady" with no job or much money living in a house teeming with felines and that of the homeless man and a big, mangy dog at his side don't back that up. I can't believe how much some people I know are willing to pay for medical care for their animals - I've even heard of people buying insurance for them!

Also, pets are inherently filthy and smelly. If you don't want them dragging dirt and other gunk into your home, defecating, urinating and vomiting on your carpet and tearing up your possessions, you have to spend a lot of money on obedience training.

Don't forget to add that the bestial nature of these creatures puts their owners, their families, their visitors and their neighbors at risk. You don't have to look far to find news of yet another dog mauling or even killing someone. Everyone knows that cats will eat their deceased owners corpses without hesitation. Don't even get me started on the more exotic animals some people feel compelled to own. Remember that monkey in California or some place that literally tore its owner to shreds a few years ago, even ripping off his testicles?

I see people talking to their animals, treating them like children or loved ones. These same people shamelessly dine on other animals and kill them every day. Do they not realize that animals are not on our level? It's impossible to communicate with them and I feel that to think otherwise is a clear sign of insanity.

I know there is a small minority block of pet owners who are closeted beastophiles. Besides those who need trained animals to perform some tangible service - guide dogs for the blind, helper monkeys, riding horses, hunting dogs, et cetera - these perverts are just about the only segment of the pet ownership community that I feel have a justifiable reason for keeping an animal.

Can anyone explain this insanity to me?

[edit on 8-7-2008 by EverythingYouDespise]

If I die and my cat decides she's hungry, I hope she does eat my flesh. I'm dead, so what do I care? At the same time, pets are a wonderful thing. And, if you're patient and an actual animal lover (as you are obviously not), it's not difficult to train an animal to be obedient.

And, less we forget, humans descend from animals. Should we really shun our real forefathers?

dude, this is the most negative post i've read today. you remind me of the urban legend that all serial killers torture and kill animals 1st. you're full of hate and your just trying to rationalize it by using fancy words and ideas. that's scarey.
i personally own a #zu (ok my GF forced me to take care of it), and he barks everytime my football team scores a TD (maybe he senses that i'm closer to getting my money back from my bookies)
i'm trying to train him to score beer for me every commercial break.
now tell me if that's not the most important thing in the world.

To the OP...

Do you actually have a soul?

I mean don't get me wrong here but....

Actually no... I'll just stick with my first question, do you have a soul?

It's nice to have a pet hamster/dog/cat/parrot to love and have around the house.

In one way it teaches you about compassion, love and respecting other life forms, in another sense for an elderly person it's good to have a bit of companionship and security (a dog for instance).

I have had cats, fish, parrots, hamsters and all of them have (including the fish) have shown me that we are not just the only species on the planet. They are amusing, friendly (well not the fish) and it's nice to have something to come home to that will show you a bit of love...

This rates (for me at least) as the daftest post I have ever seen on ATS besides the double numbers on clocks / angel messages thing.

Pffft...

Oh and if you've never had a dog/cat etc, how can you possibly understand the connection between pet and owner?

Seriously... do you have a soul????

Get off your high horse and realise that animals are very intelligent creatures, have feelings and emotions and some of them (horses, dogs, cats etc) can communicate with their owners.

[edit on 8-7-2008 by mr-lizard]

Sure, they may eat flesh, but I don't personally know of anybody that kills their own meals. I have two dogs. Does that make me insane? Of course I realise they're not on the same level, but that doesn't mean we can't communicate with them.

You yourself exclude people who need animals for the specific purpose they are trained for. How can you train something you can't communicate with? The answer is that you can't. For any one or thing to learn to do something, whether in response to commands or not, requires communication.

I ask my dogs to sit, and they do. I ask my dogs to stay and they do. When my dogs needs to go out, they sit at the door and whine. In this case I let them out. I communicate with them when I want them to sit and they respond by sitting. They communicate with me when they need to go out, and I respond by letting them out.

Delivering a message through verbal or non-verbal means, then receiving a reply to that response, again through verbal or non-verbal means. Sounds pretty much like communication to me.

Actually i'm thinking that the OP is either:

A) - insane

B) - A troll

C) - having a joke

D) - A serial killer

E) - Any combination of the above...

Jesus, where were did you get brough up? In a box on mars or something?

I've never heard anything like it in my life...

your entire theroy is based on the fact you have never owned a pet.
and it shows because you have no idea what you are talking about.

1. owner ship of animals is as primal as life its self. animals have been domesticated for thousands of years.
2. animals are not inheritly dirty. my lab from the time he was a puppy refused to crap where he eats and sleeps. never had to house train him. nor has he ever distroyed anything i own. and i trained him myself.
3. the beastial nature has been breed out of cats and dogs and you have to train them to be agressive.
4. my lab understands many words i use in the english language. he know the diffrence between house and truck. he knows certian four letter words i use as well he knows left from right. i can tell him to retrive an object from a list of about 12 things he knows the diffrence. i dont treat him like a kid although he is loved. he also enjoys eating and hunting the same animals i do. when i got him i was a hunting guide on my fathers farm.
5. animals are also scientificly proven to prolong life and relive deppression.

you my friend are the one that is insane. do your research. before you post stupid things..

Don't know if you can grasp this concept, but I know for a fact that animals will always love you regardless of your own true nature. They are forgiving and willing to love no matter what. Even if every other human mistreats you, judges you, is mean to you for any reason or for no reason, your pet will always be there for you. And they deserve to be treated with kindness and respect because they truly demonstrate those qualities which we humans should have.

I wont be as harsh as the other posters but I was leaning toward the same thoughts they have...

The thing is, its not always about material possessions, such as I wont get a cat or dog b/c they poop and puke on my carpet and leave hair on my couch.
I think companionship really outweighs the negatives. I think you have never owned a pet ... but really that was pretty negative, life isn't about owning things.

[edit on 8-7-2008 by Techsnow]

Dalegribble even though I am probably the polar opposite to what you politically stand for...

I have to say that your post made me smile.

Dogs can be the best companions on the planet, and generally don't annoy you as much as humans.

Peace

reply to post by mr-lizard

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well we cant dissagree on everything

and yes ive been mad at my dog plenty but he has made me smile a whole lot more.

humans annoy the *snip* out of me. i despize people more than anything else in this world.

[edit on 15pmu62007 by DaleGribble]

Actually no I think a post like this is a sign of insanity. This almost feels like he is just wanting some points by posting something as outright stupid as this. Pet ownership a sign of insanity? LOL

AND you say you have never had a pet....well how the heck would you know then?

Funny stuff man, truly hilarious.

It very well could be that the "old cat lady" started off as just another animal loving person until she bought a cat then, boom! 'Toxoplasma gondii' infected her brain and influenced her to buy more and more cats to help infect more people with the parasite. As far fetched and jokey as that may seem the cat parasite is known to have behavioral changing effects on infected rats. Infected rats become attracted to cat urine & become less fearful in general making then easier targets for cats. When the cat eats the infected rat the parasite is able to spread. Scientists are actually putting the effects of this cat parisites effect on humans down to culteral change in societys

First of all, let's rephrase this "ownership" thing. Perhaps in the legal, commercial sense, we do "own" animals. But on more of a spiritual level, we don't own animals. They become our companions.

A better way of thinking is to use the word "guardianship."



The Guardian Campaign



This doesn't sound like it came from you. Maybe it came from your past, like something a relative or a parent might have said to you when you were a child and wanted a pet and was told no.

My dad was always the hardest guy to convince to let us have pets. He was adamantly against it at first, but we got the animals anyway. Didn't take long, he was sucked in to their charms and now cares for them.

Pets are as clean as their guardians encourage them to be. Dogs get baths and the poo is picked up out of the yard. With cats, they are pretty clean but require a litter clean out very often.

If you let your companions wallow in mud and then enter the house, well then that's your fault. I used to know a woman who had a Great Dane, and she trained the dog to wipe her feet on a mat by the door before entering the house.



Don't blame the animals. Blame the humans that keep animals.

Have you ever played with a happy-go-lucky Golden Retriever? Hardly a risk to any family. I have two Retrievers. Yeah, they might bark at you if you're a stranger walking on the property, but as soon as they see you're no threat, they offer their paws in a shake and only want treats or petting from you.



What's wrong with talking silly to a pet? A lizard or aquarium fish I can understand, but a cute dog or a cat? My cat and dogs understand words and what they mean. Several words actually.



Can you explain the nature of God to me? Nope. Can you explain how an orange tastes to someone who's never even seen any citrus fruit? That would be difficult.

Some things just can't be learned until they are experienced.

You call it insanity, I call it sanity, for my animal companions keep me grounded.

There definatly is communication and bonds between people
and their pets.

Check this out.....

videos.komando.com:80...

reply to post by EverythingYouDespise

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WOW...
Saving a small chunk of change > Then caring for another loving soul. Wow I have never read anything so negative towards domesticated animals in my life. Clearly somewhere along the lines of whoever raised you must have taught you that humans are more important than anything in nature apparently. We eat raised poultry and other types of non predatory animals (Most of us), most people don't have chickens and pigs for pets, you're cleary refering to dogs and cats which in my own opinion should never be eaten for they display predatory intelligence like ourselves. For you to call animals who only LIVE to give us LOVE and attention filthy and mangy? HOW DARE you call handicapped people perverts who find trust in a trained animal's guidance. You're sick and I hope you never harm an innocent soul. It's really sad to see people in their own complete world This better be a joke.

I'm not qualified to response to this post. I own a black lab which, under the conditions, makes me insane.

You wouldn't take the word of an insane person would you?

So my vote don't count.

I suppose then a blind person who has a seeing-eye dog as a pet is insane? Or an elderly person who needs companionship or a guard dog. Studies show pets can be beneficial for certain medical conditions.

Yes they make messes, children actually make worse messes.

Animals give unconditional love. They really don't ask for much except to be fed and loved.

Exotic animals belong in the wild where they came from, not in people's homes or zoos or aquariums.

Animals can be trained to assist owners in a variety of ways and have also been reported to have saved lives, example: alerting the family their house is on fire.

Of course there are many more examples of the benefits of pet ownership.



[edit on 8-7-2008 by violet]

reply to post by leeza

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Yeah if that doesn't touch the human heart, something is definitely wrong.

Here's another huge lion hug.

www.youtube.com...

And watch this. The dog is having a blast.

www.youtube.com...

Edit: Oops! Can't forget Skidboot!

www.youtube.com...

[edit on 7/8/2008 by Ceara]

Well there you go, that explains it.

Also your view of animals is no suprise to me after seeing a post on your view of women.

Here is another post on your view on animals in the soldier kills puppy thread.


And here's a post you made about women.



I'm not really going to be suprised with what you will come up with next lol



[edit on 8-7-2008 by _Phoenix_]