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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think it's time we stopped keeping "pets?"

254 replies

Hullygully · 14/11/2011 08:13

Why do we still do this?

Apart from working animals, guide/guard dogs etc, isn't it odd that we keep animals in our homes? Expensive, huge amounts of waste that has to be dealt with, extermination of songbirds etc etc

Yes?
No?

Am discussing with dd, so interested in views!

OP posts:
LulaBear · 14/11/2011 15:36

...and I was just used as a scratch post

SarahStratton · 14/11/2011 15:48

Hully, hully, I had a slug in my box of CocoPops.

Pendeen · 14/11/2011 15:57

YANBU.

I have never had a pet and don't understand why people see the need to have them.

I'm not objecting to their right to do so, just seems odd to me.

PinotHolidaysAreComing · 14/11/2011 16:13

I have...

2 dogs
2 cats
1 snake
1 hamster

so nooooooo I don't think we should stop having pets. I LUFF them, see?

I'd like a meerkat for Christmas but MrPinot says no.

Alouisee · 14/11/2011 16:17

I have an 8 and a half year old rabbit who the dog is nervous of.

PinotHolidaysAreComing · 14/11/2011 16:20
TheRhubarb · 14/11/2011 16:27

Sorry, you all lose. I have various mice and rats up in the loft (we've caught around 10 so far....), a multitude of worms, slugs and snails and a baby hedgehog that dh saw in the front garden.

Not to mention the pitiful hamster in dd's room.

So actually I win.

QuintessentialShadow · 14/11/2011 16:29

I am sure all the pets would be welcome in famine struck nations. Wink

ragged · 14/11/2011 16:31

Drinking the milk of other mammals is weird. That you could pick apart for ours. If you want to discuss WEIRD. Keeping animals as companions is innately human, though. These species wouldn't even exist but for our interference.

ragged · 14/11/2011 16:31

HOURS not ours (sigh, sob, hand in hands)

ragged · 14/11/2011 16:32

Gawd, even my typo corrections have typos, now, started too early on the Wine today methinks.

PinotHolidaysAreComing · 14/11/2011 16:33

Rhub you can't count worms, slugs and snails. That's cheating innit. The baby hedgehog sounds sweeeeeeet though.

Kladdkaka · 14/11/2011 16:35

I have a pet husband. He's not particularly house trained but he keeps me company. Can I keep him?

MrsChristmasDB · 14/11/2011 16:37

Pinot

www.hedgehogkingdom.co.uk

Maybe an option instead of a Meercat ?

TheRhubarb · 14/11/2011 16:37

I think you pet husband needs re-homing kladdkaka. There are pet husband owners experienced in these things you know...just remember to rub his nose in it if he does it again.

nametapes · 14/11/2011 16:39

pets r ok besides dog dirt in the street that gets stuck to your new shoes...dogs are ok.
However, any aggressive dogs that bite should not exist, be pets or should be put down.

Kladdkaka · 14/11/2011 16:40

I think he needs re-homing too Rhu, but he's of the homing variety. Where ever I leave him, he always finds his way back.

SarahStratton · 14/11/2011 16:52

I have LittleDog, FailCat and Mortimer.

I win.

MrsChristmasDB · 14/11/2011 16:53

Who is Mortimer, Sarah ?

KatieScarlett2833 · 14/11/2011 16:59

We have had loads of animals in the garden including

A pair of mating pheasant
Multiple hedgehogs
Frogs in pond
Squirrels

Had to call RSPCB about the birds as was worried.
Have to regularly free hedgehogs from DS goal net.
Have to clear pond out (yuck)
The squirrels eat all my strawberries and are not even embarrassed by their theiving, they just sit on the wall and munch away.

And we don't even have a pet.

issey6cats · 14/11/2011 17:52

i have cats, my marriage recently broke down, my kids have left home so i live on my own now, i would not have anyone to vent at, make a fuss over, talk to (even though they dont talk back) my cats are company for me and i couldnt imagine my life without them, and no im not some lonely old dear i do go to college full time , work at a cat rescue and have friends i go out with, but indoors they are my company, thats why i have pets

DilysPrice · 14/11/2011 18:21

I keep pet cats specifically in order to disembowel the fwuffy widdle mouses (we live in terraced house and have an endless supply). Much more fun than traps Grin and it's teaching the DCs lots about rodent anatomy.

I think breeding pets is very difficult to justify. Picking up abandoned animals and giving them a home, not so much - if you were going to stop people keeping pets you would literally have to go out and shoot all the strays.

Onemorning · 14/11/2011 18:33

I am slave to one cat. He is the love of my life, and he is 17 years old.

diabolo · 14/11/2011 18:55

Well I am not getting rid of my lovely, loopy spaniel for anybody! Dogs are domesticated animals and need to be with their pack (a human family).

He brings me presents (dirty socks from the washing basket, hedgehogs (!) which I then rescue and put back in the hedgerow, the TV remote control, my mobile phone, tissues, empty toilet roll middles, my husbands pants..... I could go on. He lays and stares at me for hours with his big brown eyes.

He is part of the family and we love him as much as he loves us.

hiddenhome · 14/11/2011 18:58

I've had pets for most of my life. They've been my family when I had no human family. I love animals and love my pets to bits.

I have two cats, three chickens and some coldwater fish Smile