Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Flip

1 2 ··· 5 6 7 ··· 10 11

Original poster

I don't want to get a family pet due to ethics

253 replies

Markinsomerset · 26/08/2015 19:01

Hi,

My wife really wants a pet and thinks it is very valuable for the children. However ethically I don't agree as cats are responsible for distroying lots of species. Dogs I think its very unfair for as each day I'm sure they feel like they are being abandoned each time they are left alone. Can't guarantee that the suppliers are ethical.

If everyone got rid of their pets then no one would go hungry in the world. They just seem like a selfish interest IMO.

Who is right?

OP posts:

Thread gallery

ValancyJane · 26/08/2015 23:00

I just told my cat that you feel he's unethical. You should see the glare he's sending you...

Onedayinthesun · 26/08/2015 23:05

Ok.......

catzpyjamas · 26/08/2015 23:09

[kitten]

catzpyjamas · 26/08/2015 23:11

Oops
Unethical cat

I don't want to get a family pet due to ethics

TheoriginalLEM · 26/08/2015 23:14

i don't think sea monkeys have much of an impact on the environment. could go with those.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 26/08/2015 23:16

You are getting a hard time here OP. I suppose it's a knee jerk reaction from people who haven't really thought very deeply about the issues.

We don't have pets for similar reasons to you: I am quite into my garden birds so loathe cats, but mostly I think it's a bit bizarre to own an animal simply for amusement, a kind of living toy. And yes, it is a massive waste of resources for so much money to be spent on feeding these toys.

catzpyjamas · 26/08/2015 23:17

Unethical sea monkeys

pigsDOfly · 26/08/2015 23:39

What makes you think people own animals simply for amusement Tinkly? I think people's reasons are many and varied for bringing animals into their lives. Animals are not toys and anyone who thinks they are hasn't a clue about owning a dog or cat, or any other pet come to that.

When I posted the first time on the 2nd page I raised several points I would have liked the OP to answer. Clearly he is has given this so much thought and feels so strongly about it that apart from a couple of post on page 1 he hasn't come back to post again.

I really doubt that he's given it any serious thought at all and is probably just on an attempt at a wind up.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 26/08/2015 23:49

But what do you think pets are pigs if not toys? I suspect you will say all the sentimental companionship guff. Pets are basically there for their owners gratification, that is the only purpose they serve. It is a quite bizarre first world way of looking at animals.

Sloggiesatemychocolate · 26/08/2015 23:50

And I am wondering why you joined MN just to post this. It's a fairly heavy first post....

horseygeorgie · 26/08/2015 23:55

ah this thread has had some golden moments!

I'm not sure my spaniel and terrier would appreciate being forced off the sofa in front of the fire to go and like wild with their own kind.

Plus seperation anxiety doesn't really come into it as they come with me almost everywhere ( I work with horses and take them along). The rare event i have to leave them can be utterly soul destroying. It takes them ages to prise their lazy bones off the sofa to say hello to me. So stressed they are!

Atenco · 26/08/2015 23:58

If everyone got rid of their pets then no one would go hungry in the world

and here I was thinking the bankers were responsible for world hunger

kali110 · 27/08/2015 00:01

Omg, i take in stray cats.they don't attack or kill other animals. They're terrified of other animals, birds, mice hedgehogs.
If anything is to blame for killing our nature it's us. We're killing them and their environment.
What is it with some of mn and their hate on cats?
If you don't like them, get something else!

kali110 · 27/08/2015 00:11

I don't own cats for amusement, but because other people decided to have a pet then dumped them.
If everyone did that then there would be a lot of starving and then dead pets.
How is that ethical? Annoys me enough people who have pets and then just dump them.
We'd be better off having less kids.

lobster i had a hedgehog, guinea pig and 2 rabbits and my cats are terrified of them. They sit by the rabbits cage and they come to the front and they leg it!
We had a baby bird in the house that we had found, it let out one cry and i have never seen my cats run so fast! They are seriously scared of everything bar other cats, but woe betide any other cat that tries to come near the rabbits, they sit and guard them when they're in their run ( and very far from them)

pigsDOfly · 27/08/2015 00:11

Well Tinkly you would be wrong if you thought that's what I would say. I have no idea why other people get their pets I only know why I got mine. However, I hope my life is sufficiently fulfilled not to have to rely on an animal for my companionship.

People in the first world acquire a great many things for their own gratification. The shops are full of stuff that people really don't need but love to own.

Are these expensive, unnecessary consumer goods on which so many people in the first world spend their money really of more intrinsic value than a cat or dog?

kali110 · 27/08/2015 00:23

Pigs i would give up all my possessions for my animals. They mean nothing to me compared to them.

PrincessTeacake · 27/08/2015 00:28

Op, the fact that you typed this out in a house or apartment somewhere on an internet capable device is a debt that you owe to humans domesticating animals. We would not be such a dominant species without them, and I might as well point out that a link in the evolutionary chain that brought us to where we are now also killed off at least two species of human-like ape along the way.

Do you wonder why cats often bring home little songbirds and not so often great big honking crows? Because crows have evolved to be strong and aggressive when faced with a predator and that's why they're everywhere. That's natural selection at work. And rats are primarily successful because they are excellent breeders who can live under most conditions and eat just about anything, they're as much a threat to the species on the endangered list as any house pet. Foxes alone wouldn't be enough to keep the numbers down, cats serve their purpose.

If you want to address a more pressing concern, how about addressing the massive issue of chronic jellyfish blooms cropping up in the oceans as a result of sharks and sea turtles being driven to extinction? That's not the doing of cats or dogs, that's human encroachment on the territory of wild animals.

Also, since we're doing pet pictures, I have to put in one of mine. She likes to chase rabbits and squirrels but she hasn't a hope of catching one:

pigsDOfly · 27/08/2015 00:39

Absolutely agree Kali. My point exactly.

pigsDOfly · 27/08/2015 00:49

Posted too soon.

Having pets is not about first world selfish gratification and they are not toys, they are sentient beings.

The idea that getting rid of them will cure world hunger is just ridiculous.

Atenco · 27/08/2015 01:08

Pets are basically there for their owners gratification, that is the only purpose they serve. It is a quite bizarre first world way of looking at animals

What? Do you think people in other parts of the world don't love their animals? What the first world has contributed to animal husbandry is factory farming.

Degustibusnonestdisputandem · 27/08/2015 08:28

Oh really? So what about my farmer dads working dog who was also a pet?

hackmum · 27/08/2015 08:39

Re: cats. Yes, you're probably right about cats destroying birdlife. It's not great. Then again, you could get a rescue cat - the cat already exists, so you're not adding to the problem by taking a cat from a breeder.

Dogs do feel sad when they're left. I wouldn't have a dog unless there was someone home during the day to keep it company. Again, I would also get (and indeed did get) a rescue dog rather than a dog from a breeder.

I think the point that we'd be able to end world starvation by getting rid of pets is probably dubious, though.

LittleLionMansMummy · 27/08/2015 08:41

Actually op makes a really good point about dogs which has been overlooked (and I'm not being sarcastic!) I would love a dog but decided against it as it would spend long periods of time alone. I agree that people who work all day shouldn't keep dogs - it's really unfair on them, being natural pack animals.

We've got cats. I suppose they might be described as ethical. Although they do shit on our own garden, which tbh I didn't think they were supposed to do

Fluffycloudland77 · 27/08/2015 08:55

Let's be honest, op has no wife and kids.

echt · 27/08/2015 09:26

Even the RSPB does not think cats are responsible for bird decline, just we humans.

www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwildlife/advice/gardening/unwantedvisitors/cats/birddeclines.aspx

Research in Australia implies the same.

The OP is naive in thinking that the end of pets means the end of world hunger. This is exactly the same thinking that said if the USA abandoned the space race, there would be no more poverty. It did and the poverty is still there.

OP, you sound like a lazy journalist/student looking for copy. Get up off your arse and google a bit.

Flip

1 2 ··· 5 6 7 ··· 10 11

Swipe left for the next trending thread