AIBU to say that no one should own a caged pet?

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My parents loved animals and hated to see caged pets ie rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs etc. I did end up having one or two of these as a child but they always hated it really.
Now I have DC and they ask regularly for a rabbit, hamster etc. I just can’t agree. I think it’s so cruel. Hamsters gnaw on the bars all night to try in vain to get out.
Rabbits stuck in hutches or small runs all day.
Many people claim to love animals but how can they when they are caging animals? I can’t even stand to see fish in a tank!
Hate house cats too. Also think it’s cruel.

I’ve had a crated dog before

He used to take himself to his crate for bed. The door would be left open and I made it as den like as I could. A cover over the crate, a nice soft bed. He loved it

The two dogs I have now don’t like their crate. So I don’t use it.

We’ve lived with domesticated animals for 1000s of years. Though agree, dogs are meant to be companion animals when domesticated.

@crispysausagerolls my dog will eat wife's first chance she gets. She also has a tendency to jump up on windowsills if we leave her to her own devices.

What would you like me to do take the tv upstairs every time I'm going to go out?

It is not shitty and it is not lazy. We paid for three trainers, we spent hours upon hours walking up the road and back whilst leaving her out her crate. This went on from when she was a puppy till 2 years old. It didn't work. She was intent on finding anything and everything to rip up and would jump on the windowsills once damaging her back leg. I can't remove the window sills can I?

For her she is safer in her crate on the occasions where we cannot go out with her. She also chooses to sleep in there overnight and throughout the day if she wants a nap and will paw the door closed so she is shut in. She defo sounds like she hates it doesn't she!

@SimonJT we’ll have to differ on that as that is entirely not my experience. In fact quite the opposite as I had to buy new ones almost constantly as they release so easily. Anyway, as I said, think it’s slightly derailing thread as not the discussion here but also happy to have this discussion elsewhere.

*eats wires not wife's - although she'd probably lick them to death

Cockatiels tend to walk about, and not fly around.

Maybe in a house.. As they dont have much choice.. They certainly fly around in their natural habitat.

My charity that I work with won’t rehome unless cats have outdoor space. This is not unusual

In Aus when I got my rescue cat from a adoption place, if you said you would let them outside, that's a black mark for you won't get the cat.
The damage done to native wildlife is massive in Aus. Wildlife that is found nowhere else is being ripped to shreds by outdoor cats, both pets and ferals. Some councils will fine you if they pick up your cat outside daylight hours, some its ALL hours.

We have a pack of ferals roaming our town, we have caught a couple in attempts to catch (with council permission) the feral dog who took out 20 of our chooks.
They are full of fleas, one is almost entirely blind, weeping eyes, torn ears and scars with no fur from fights or skin disease. They are all no more than a year old. Its so sad, all their issues are treatable, apart from the blindness. They won't be rehoneable and would be put down if council caught them.
But what that's ok cos it's natural and they outside? They suffering more than any cat who never goes outside

Rabbits don't want human interaction? Wow I'd best go and tell my rabbits that they're wrong for liking being around us and actively coming to play with us. And tell all the bunny owners on a different forum I'm on, that they're wrong too.

Yes, I hate seeing animals kept poorly and in inadequate housing. But to say all pets is slavery and cruel is rediculous.

My rabbits have a large run and big double floor hutch, no wires on the floor. In the day the run is pulled back from the hutch, the play room door into the house opened and they can run around our garden/downstairs of the house as much as they want.

At night they take themselves to the run as soon as I say bedtime (about 10pm) and they're happy as larry. They also take themselves off to it during the day when they want alone time.

On no level could you describe how we keep them as "cruel".

@Kittenlicker well I was a child, when I grew up I realised me wanting a cat didn't justify putting a cat in danger. We never lived near bus roads, two were ran over on small residential roads that weren't through ways, one had wandered to a park over a main road, about half a mile from our house.

A dog is pet slavery??? I have heard it all now, you made me laugh! My dog is the most spoiled thing ever. He gets too long walks a day, I wfh full time so he hangs out on the sofa during the day. He has full access to the garden. We play at lunchtime or he lies on the back of the sofa with his head on my shoulder. He has really top quality food, raw bones from the butcher and treats. He digs in my flower beds, rolls in the missy bits and has made himself a den under the trampoline. He sleeps in my bed with me and DD. I literally cannot imagine a more perfect life. Once DD finishes her lunch we are off with him to explore trees and streams (he went out with just me already first thing up the quarry for an hour!)

He is not a slave he is an equal member of the family and we work hard to give him a fun and dog suitable life!

I agree. It’s like torture. No wonder hamsters are always chewing their cages, poor things.

I agree. They shouldn't be purchased anymore from pet shops. Breeding is just unnecessary. Rescues are fine as long as they are looked after properly. We have a rescued bearded dragon and have had 2 rescued Guinea pigs in the past. They need an awful lot of space. Hutches and indoor runs are rarely big enough.

I have 20 tarantulas in plastic boxes...do you want to come and let them all have free run of your house?

I disagree with your comment about house cats. My three are house cats but are allowed in the garden daily to run around and spend their energy. They are the happiest and nicest cats I have ever met. There's no way I'd let them out to roam to kill wildlife or get hurt or injured by cars/other cats.

I agree about rabbits. However hard you work for them, I think they are mostly pretty miserable as pets.

However, I think guinea pigs kind of like it! They were bred to live inside humans houses.

I understand that the concept of caging is uncomfortable, but most of that discomfort comes from the history of inadequate pet husbandry, and also from anthropomorphising animals. Animals are not humans. They do not care about being free. Nor are they "free" in the wild. Most animals are territorial, and they can't just go wherever they want in the wild. The size of their territory is connected to food availability, i.e they don't use space for the sake of it, they use space because they need to to survive. One of the species I keep (gerbil) lives in territories as small as 20x20m in the wild. Gerbils are often kept in tanks 1m x 0.5m or bigger in captivity. That doesn't seem bad at all when you think they have no shortage of food to worry about. They don't need space for the sake of space.

To use the example of snakes, snakes really don't want to slither around for hours every day. They do it in the wild to find mates and to find food, not because they enjoy it. In captivity they need a large enriched enclosure but they'll spend most of the day asleep. They'll get a mouse handed to them every week don't have to worry about mating. They don't care that they're not free. I know it's hard to comprehend from a human perspective, because we value freedom, but animals are not humans.

A cage isn't a cage to a well-kept pet, it's their own habitat where they feel safe and secure and often they won't want to leave it even given the opportunity.

There are differences between species of course and I do sympathise with the concern over caged birds, but caging in general is not the horrible concept it sounds like when you really understand animal behaviour and psychology (rather than misapplying human psychology to animals).

We have a small Russian hamster in a bloody massive cage with tons of toys and she's played with. Never gnaws on the cage and generally seems happy.

YANBU. I have a Syrian hamster with free access to a linked network of big cages (P@H large hamster cage, a Barney and a Detolf for those who know/care). She has plenty of levels, substrates, toys, time to explore the house, the best food and bedding but she still chews the bars. I won’t be getting another when this one dies as the experience has shown me that we can’t adequately provide for her needs with the space we have.

@SeasonallySnowyPeasant
Sadly, Syrian hamsters (especially the females) are a species that some experts are starting to think aren't actually that well suited to captivity as they do have such complex needs. I think a lot of them aren't that happy kept as pets, though other species of hamsters do really well. Syrians are just really complicated.

I hate to see animals in cages unless they have a big run. When my kids were small they had guinea pigs but they had constant access to an integrated run, even then I thought it wasn't a great life. My friend has a fish in a tiny tank that is frequently filthy, poor thing and the absolute worst is birds in small cages, omg I could weep for them. To naturally be so wild and free and cooped up in a cage, so cruel. YANBU.

I also don't like the idea of house cats, my friend has 3 in a small house with 2 dogs. One of the cats went missing once so they all have to stay in now, they don't even get to go in the garden so unnatural.

We are not in Aus. It’s the U.K. and generally they won’t rehome a cat unless it has access to outdoor space and that because it is deemed important. There are obvious exceptions to the rule, if a cats is rescued and has always been an indoor cat or if an animal has an illness or disability that would necessitate being housed permanently indoors. I would say all the animal rescue centres I know of would suggest access to outdoors is best and enriches an animals life. I understand that it’s different in different countries. Australia has always been a bit odd with its wildlife rules though. Introducing stuff and then culling it when realising it has got out of countries. That’s a human error though, and yes I totally agree the pet market has got massively out of control. Everyone wants a dog/cat/rabbit/gerbil now and as the population grows the demand for animals grows . I still stand by my initial comment that humans cause the most destruction to wildlife, much more so than cats (and dogs which kill thousands of wildlife and livestock).

we had friends with a walled garden, who had a freerange pet rabbit. They moved house to an unfenced garden and passed the rabbit to us. He lived freerange in our garden to age 11, causing no trouble apart from sexually pestering our wimpy dog. One night we forgot to lock the door of his bedroom hutch and a fox killed him. Ate the head but left the rest.
Lots of people these days have free-range rabbits living in their own house, no cage. Ask any vet .

*control not countries.

@Kittenlicker cats protection would only rehome us any cats as an indoor cat as we in live in the countryside. They said it was safer for the cats and gave us information on enforcement for indoor cats