Some vegans say it's wrong to keep pets

[learieonthewildmoor]

I have been thinking about the ethics of keeping pets. (I saw on the PETA website we shouldn't use animals for entertainment. No more cute cat videos on YouTube then?) People love their pets. How can it be wrong?

Sometimes when my cat is sleeping, I think "Now is the time for me to gallop across the bed, making a graceful leap over him", like he does at 4 o'clock in the morning. However, I never do.
He comes to the door whenever I come home, and though I pretend to myself he's welcoming me back; I suspect he is really looking to see if he can escape out onto the driveway. When he does make a mad dash out onto the driveway, he then lies down purring whereupon I pick him up and carry him back in.
I keep a chair next to my computer because he likes to sit next to me. Pretty much every day he sits on my computer mouse until I get up and let him sit in my chair. Then I pick him up and put him on his chair and he goes to sleep.
When he sees me carrying a coffee cup up the stairs, he runs ahead of me and jumps out at my ankles. Only when I'm carrying a coffee cup.
He has a dozen toys but much prefers to bring in leaves and gum nuts which he then puts in my shoes for safe keeping.
He won't eat raw meat so we buy a super expensive dry cat food for his teeth and gums. He hates tablets so we buy the super expensive worm and flea liquid treatment.
I send photos of him to my husband when he is at work. There one million photos of the cat sleeping on our iCloud.

We got him as a rescue kitten and I can't help feeling he's having a better life with us; rather than as a feral animal full of worms and fleas with no safe territory, or euthanised. We get the pleasure of living with him, he gets a good life - it seems like a perfectly ethical arrangement.
I wonder if vegans are being a bit too self-denying and overly rigorous?

Another day I want to talk about the vegan attitude to cheese.

Another vegan here with pets, all rescues. I'm in vegan facebook groups with many thousands of members and this topic comes up from time to time - and almost all the comments are from vegans who think it's fine to keep rescue aninals as pets.

The vegan society defines veganism as a way of living which seeks to exclude, asfaras ispossibleandpracticable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. There are many ways to embrace veganliving. Adopting rescue animals and giving them loving homes can hardly be considered exploitative. Here is the vegan society's page on the subject: www.vegansociety.com/whats-new/blog/veganism-and-companion-animals

By the way notice that the definition of veganism is not about being perfect. There was another thread recently that said that certain steel and rubber car parts are made with animal products so vegans can't have cars. That is taking things to an extreme beyond the vegan society's definition. There is also the rumour perpetuated by QI that vegans can't eat things like avocados because farmers use hives of bees to pollinate them. Also untrue.

I’m a vegan and a cat owner, I know it is majorly hypocritical, but cats are really very cute.

All my cats have had lovely lives, been loved and cared for and spoilt rotten. And had a gentle and painless end to their lives. Wild animals don’t get that. I support measures to improve animal welfare but despise PETA.

Some vegans just need a good steak to enjoy, and i say that as a vegetarian.
Sometimes I se cat videos that I think are mildly cruel or oddly objectifying, like a dressed up cat that looks really pissed off. But I suppose I could be just projecting human traits onto cats.

Sleeping, do you have any evidence for that?

I know things like the baby bear on an ice clip was fucking terrible.

That the cute Loris(?) pictures were nigh on totured, probably by people trying to sell the poor things, that many wild animal 'funnies' are animals in distress.

But I haven't seen or heard anything about the cute cats being in any way iffy.

Who said anything about releasing domesticated animals into the wild? Some of you have seriously limited horizons. Has it not occurred to you that a policy of not breeding further animals would be a more practical solution? It would be difficult to implement but not impossible. It’s not going to happen because humans are too selfish to do without their furry amusements.

And whilst I am one of the selfish humans (I still eat meat), I don’t kid myself that the little lambs just love their lives in the Welsh countryside and can’t wait to end up on my plate after a quick painless death. It’s not just the fact that no animal ever suffered after not coming into existence but the fact that many animals have to die to feed your precious dogs and cats.

It’s up to the individual, surely? Some vegans aren’t comfortable with carnivorous pets because they don't want to buy meat-based food for them. Some don’t want pets at all. Some are happy to feed their pets meat.

If you’re happy with the ethics of owning your pet, that’s all that matters (assuming you care for it properly). It shouldn’t be an issue for you if some vegans feel differently and want to advocate for different choices.

Im not a vegan but I agree the pet industry is horribly cruel. I adore my rescue tortoises but I'd never, ever breed from them - so many unwanted ones everywhere, or others having a miserable life at the hands of ignorant owners.

ReganSomerset says keeping pets is exploitative.
I can see how that applies to cows and hens, but not pets.
Mistreating animals is mistreatment, not exploitation. Responsible, loving pet ownership benefits the animal, surely? The dog being hand-fed chicken and rice surely thinks so!

I was really surprised by the English view that cats should be free-range. Here in Australia it's considered irresponsible. Our vet urged us to keep our cat indoors to reduce the risk of feline HIV, death by car, etc. I read on Mumsnet the other day the difference is English wildlife has adapted to cats as predators, while Australian wildlife is much more vulnerable to imported predators. We have tons of toys and a climbing tree inside and he goes out into the garden freely, but he's never out at night. We have possums running along our fence at night, I don't like their chances with him.

I despise PETA. They lie and fabricate a lot of their stuff

My cat would be horrified if her slaves disappeared! She'd have to go through the cat flap instead of insisting one of us attended to her! The guineas would be find on the grass until they'd eaten anything within a few inches. Then they'd no doubt starve to death because they wouldn't have the energy to move!

My rabbits, who have a shed and large pen would quite like to escape, and have in the past (from their old pen) but did always return. They like their heated shed too much! And my hens return to their coop every evening, and couldn't open the tins of sweetcorn by themselves, so would also rather we stayed.

All in all, OP, YANBU

My Dsis who is a Vegan stated to let all the animals be free to roam, I wonder if she'd be happy if cows, sheep and pigs are roaming the motorway.
I often wonder if vegans especially famous vegans feed their pet, cat or dog food tinned meat.

Don’t take advice from Peta they murder more cats and dogs than any other rescue organisation

I often wonder if vegans especially famous vegans feed their pet, cat or dog food tinned meat

I’ve seen vegans feed their cats a vegan diet which is pure animal abuse as in no way shape or form can a cat be healthy on a vegan diet.

I'm vegan but have two cats and a dog and no problem with responsible pet ownership (puppy farms etc are a different matter).
I guess that many vegans would not consider me to be vegan because of this. I've actually left all the FB vegan groups I was in because of the regular vitriolic fighting over such things.

l once had someone on twitter (who wasn't a vegan, just an idiot) inform me that l don't 'own' my pet rabbits. l ended up blocking him as he was being so militant about it.
l've had four rabbits, three of which were rescues. l still have three of them. l help out at my friend's rescue (which is how l ended up with the third one).
What do these people think would happen to all the animals in rescues if we thought it was unethical to keep pets? My three are spoiled rotten. They live in the house (they have their own room), are better fed than l am, l spend a lot of money on insurance and a monthly plan at the vets to keep them healthy. My last rescue actually has a medical condition - part of the reason l adopted him was because l knew (and so did my friend who runs the rescue) he'd be properly looked after.
l choose not to eat meat for personal reasons. But every animal that's ever shared my life has been loved and looked after amazingly well. l'd never buy another pet, l'd always adopt from a rescue where the animals there have been failed by people, and are there through no fault of their own.
l can understand it to a degree, particularly from the breeding point of view. Rescues are overflowing with unwanted animals, yet people buy puppies and kittens from breeders.
l personally can't do a lot, but l can sleep at night knowing that my three little ones are safe, fed and warm.

I've kept rescue pets all my life, and have given them the very best lives I can. I love them and value the companionship they offer. However, I've sort-of-almost decided that after my current cat (16 yrs) and dog (5 yrs) I'll have no more. I do think PETA (and other ethicists) have a good point, and it would be better - much better - for humans to stop breeding so many domestic animals. Part of my thinking is around climate change - I suspect owning pets in a food-hungry, uncertain world will be about as popular as smoking is now i.e. not at all. And then there would be the grief of not being able to protect them in a changing climate. So, no more for me.

I know some vegans feed their pet a vegan diet, which is cruel.
Isn't buying meat in a can, the worst kind of meat for your pet hypocritical, if you boycott animal products.
I have a friend who claims to get weak passing the butchers, yet she'll empty a can of smelly cat meat into a bowl for her animal to chew.
I am not vegan or a pet owner.

Some do, some don't.

Just like some vegetarians do and some don't. And omnivores.

There are even people who don't like animals at all, whether because they're scared, think they're dirty or just don't like them.

I don't think a subset of vegans is anything to get aeriated over.

Then they should not keep pets, in keeping with their beliefs. In keeping with my beliefs, I shall continue to keep pets, pedigree or otherwise, until I see fit. And if they don't like that, they can fold it up until it's all sharp corners, sit on it, and slowly rotate.

Haha. I love the convenience of the fact that most vegans just happen to find this rule a bit daft

if you're strict vegan it's not using animals in any way so no horse-riding

Which means no horses or ponies. Nobody would keep or breed nags if they couldn’t ride them.

It’s animal rights activists that gave a problem with pets. Not vegans per se.

My understanding is that cats 'domesticated' themselves about 10,000 ( about the same time that humans started farming) and it was a win l-win relationship as the cats kept mice out of the grain. I don't think cats were never domesticated by humans, which may be where the saying 'you can never really own a cat' comes from. They choose to live with people and can and do leave for greener pastures if they fancy it.

Not sure about the dog argument but would say vegans are wrong about the cat argument.