To not love my pets?

[BathFullOfEels]

Just to clarify my pets consist of two rabbits and four chickens. A friend came round yesterday and animals were running around the garden. Friend has dogs and claimed she would never consider getting smaller animals as she couldn’t cope with the heartbreak when they died after a couple of years. I said I definitely wouldn’t get a dog that I knew would only live a couple of years but the chickens I’ll kill when they stop laying and replace with young ones. I won’t replace the rabbits as they’re a pita to look after, they dig holes all over the lawn and they are, at best, disinterested in me. Also they’re already six and show no signs of slowing down yet so they’re not exactly pets with a short life expectancy.

Friend was looking at me as I said this as if I’d just casually admitted murder and was then really odd with me the rest of the time she was here.

Is it really that unusual to not love your pets? If I had a dog or a cat or a horse I could totally see how I would love it. But chickens and rabbits? I like that the chickens lay eggs. I like that I have the space and time to give both my chickens and rabbits much nicer lives than they would have with a lot of pet owners. But I don’t actually feel anything towards them. No more than if I looked at a field of sheep and thought ‘they look like happy sheep’. My friend made me feel like I was being cruel not to love them

It’s one thing not lining your pets (I’d probably think that a bit unusual, but not think much more about it) but saying you’ll kill them when they outlive their usefulness is very callous. I’d be shocked too if one of my friends said that!

We have 3 dogs, all of whom I do love, but not in that "fur babies" kind of way. I used to feel that before having children , but not since.

We also have 5 hens, who I don't love at all. They are funny and sweet, especially one of them and their eggs are fab. But this is our 4th lot of hens. The first lot were killed by a neighbours dog that got into our garden (my dogs give the hens a wide berth), the second lot were got by the fox and the third lot died of old age in the hot summer we had, which probably killed them off quicker than normal. Each time I just said, oh well and got some new ones.

Meh it’s livestock. My chickens are heading towards the block is they don’t start laying again soon. I have them for eggs not pets if they are not providing egg they will be pet food.

I’d missed your update OP. Maybe you should have another chat with your friend and explain you were going to kill them when they stopped laying because older chickens can have stressful lives so it would be a kindness? That sounds far more relatable than killing because they outlived their usefulness!

Its possible to look after animals properly without loving them, just as its possible to say you love your pets and abuse them. Love isnt the criteria that makes you a good animal keeper or pet owner.
For me its normal to keep rabbits and hens, enjoy their company, and still eat them. It horrifies other people but that doesnt make it cruel.

For me its normal to keep rabbits and hens, enjoy their company, and still eat them. It horrifies other people but that doesnt make it cruel.

It’s not cruel in your eyes, but it is in some people’s, which is probably why they’re horrified.

Does your shocked friend buy supermarket chicken? If so she's being a total hypocrite, your hens as you say enjoy a far far better life than those poor unfortunate beings who have a few weeks of misery followed by a possibly very stressful death.

Well your chickens aren't pets so they are out of the equation so it's just about the rabbits really isn't it?

Anyway yanbu about the rabbits I guess, I've loved all my pets but I get that some people dont.

Dp’s grandad kept chickens when he was younger. He lived in an old farm house that used to belong to his parents. He poppped out one day while his mother and aunt were visiting. Upon his return he noticed the chickens were missing. He asked his mum and his aunt if they’d seen them. They casually responded that the chickens were in the freezer!

Turns out that while he was out they rounded up the chickens, killed, feathered, plucked, and promptly stored them in the freezer for winter! They believed they were doing him a favour, dp’s poor grandad was just fond of animals and kept them for eggs...he’s a pescatarian now

No no no!

Its way WEIRDER to ENJOY their company and then KILL them!

Fuck me, that's crazy 

1.Fine to keep them as livestock and kill them

1. Fine to treat them well and then kill them

1. To actively enjoy petting them and then killing them to eat seems almost sociopathic

I can just about get on board with my dog dying naturally and the world ending in a zombie Apocalypse so I have to eat her

But there's no way I can love her like I do and then make a gravy out of her - never mind kill her MYSELF

I said that I understand that some people are horrified by eating backyard hens; but if they think thats cruel, they don't understand what cruelty is.

AddisonMontgomeryIsAQueen in answer to your question, I have a cat because we had room for a rescue and it seemed the right thing to do and also he is fluffy and cute and makes us laugh. We like having him around but, as an example, he is shut downstairs (with access outside) at night because otherwise he wakes us all up at night jumping on the beds. If I actually loved him, I'd have let him sleep upstairs and I would get up with him in the night, like I did my children, when they were little.

I said that I understand that some people are horrified by eating backyard hens; but if they think thats cruel, they don't understand what cruelty is.

According to the dictionary cruelty is: “Behaviour which causes physical or mental harm to another.”

You have to cause physical harm in order to kill something so to me killing is cruelty.

A natural death can be more cruel than euthanasia.

I agree upstart and euthanasia is often the kindest option. Very different to killing animals to eat them I think.

Farming people don’t “kill their pets”! Pets are animals that don’t have a job, OPs chickens have a job, which is to supply her with eggs. Cows and sheep and chicken on a farm aren’t pets! They are livestock, they are there to earn money, and once they no longer do that, they have no future on a farm. That doesn’t mean they have terrible lives, they should be well cared for, and humanely dispatched when the time comes, but the truth is, no livestock farmer will pay out continuously for an animal that isn’t earning anything back. It’s a livelihood, not a hobby.

I guess your chickens aren't exactly pets - they're food

If have thought you were joking about killing your chickens and if you weren’t find it odd! I have chickens and the oldest is nearly 10, when any have stopped laying I’ve bought new ones and just let the ones who don’t lay live in the coop with them as they gave me eggs for years. It sounds like you have the space so can’t you just do this? Chickens do tend to die at random times I’ve found so although some have lived to 10 some die at 3 or 4 too so I don’t think you’ll be overrun with non laying chickens!

I would find it odd/cold that you hadn’t formed an attachment to your animals, but that’s because i am a ‘pets as a part of the family’ person. However, reading your posts, you seem to see the chickens more as livestock than pets, so I can see why you would be unwilling to given them house room once they cease to lay.