The Weird Way People Treat Pets

[Winston]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What do you mean? Do you think deer, beavers, raccoons, squirrels, moose, wolves, cheetahs, etc prefer to live in a house or cage or zoo? Come on. Do you think elephants prefer living in zoos and circuses rather than in the wild? What about lions and tigers? Haven't you seen that great 1966 movie "Born Free" about lions? It's based on a true story.

Dogs and cats are different. They were domesticated over many generations, and some say they were genetically engineered to be pets rather than live out in the wild, and that's why they don't do as well in the wild as other animals do.

Haven't you seen horse movies like "The Black Stallion"? They always show horses happier when they are running wild on the plains and prairies.

I also heard that some animals cannot survive in captivity, such as squirrels. If you try to cage one or raise one in a glass box or house, they will die I hear. How do you explain that?

[Tsar]

@Winston Squirrels are fun and interactive in captivity. They don't die. They easily adjust more than most animals to living indoors. However, the squirrels need to be taken in as baby squirrels.

[Outcast9428]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What do you mean? Do you think deer, beavers, raccoons, squirrels, moose, wolves, cheetahs, etc prefer to live in a house or cage or zoo? Come on. Do you think elephants prefer living in zoos and circuses rather than in the wild? What about lions and tigers? Haven't you seen that great 1966 movie "Born Free" about lions? It's based on a true story.

Dogs and cats are different. They were domesticated over many generations, and some say they were genetically engineered to be pets rather than live out in the wild, and that's why they don't do as well in the wild as other animals do.

Haven't you seen horse movies like "The Black Stallion"? They always show horses happier when they are running wild on the plains and prairies.

I also heard that some animals cannot survive in captivity, such as squirrels. If you try to cage one or raise one in a glass box or house, they will die I hear. How do you explain that?

A cage, no… Zoos? Yes. All creatures will prefer a controlled environment where they are given freedom only to the extent that it doesn’t threaten them with destitution as @Pixel--Dude is explaining. But true freedom always carries the threat of destitution. People say they want that but they don’t really. They’re just whining about having to follow rules. Anybody who loves to talk about how great it is to be wild and free and how terrible civilization is for domesticating humans, turning us into pussies and eliminating the warrior spirit or alpha male in us or whatever is free to go live in The Democratic Republic of Congo and see how wonderful life is when you don’t have rules and civilization anymore.

[Pixel--Dude]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What do you mean? Do you think deer, beavers, raccoons, squirrels, moose, wolves, cheetahs, etc prefer to live in a house or cage or zoo? Come on. Do you think elephants prefer living in zoos and circuses rather than in the wild? What about lions and tigers? Haven't you seen that great 1966 movie "Born Free" about lions? It's based on a true story.

Dogs and cats are different. They were domesticated over many generations, and some say they were genetically engineered to be pets rather than live out in the wild, and that's why they don't do as well in the wild as other animals do.

Haven't you seen horse movies like "The Black Stallion"? They always show horses happier when they are running wild on the plains and prairies.

I also heard that some animals cannot survive in captivity, such as squirrels. If you try to cage one or raise one in a glass box or house, they will die I hear. How do you explain that?

A cage, no… Zoos? Yes. All creatures will prefer a controlled environment where they are given freedom only to the extent that it doesn’t threaten them with destitution as @Pixel--Dude is explaining. But true freedom always carries the threat of destitution. People say they want that but they don’t really. They’re just whining about having to follow rules. Anybody who loves to talk about how great it is to be wild and free and how terrible civilization is for domesticating humans, turning us into pussies and eliminating the warrior spirit or alpha male in us or whatever is free to go live in The Democratic Republic of Congo and see how wonderful life is when you don’t have rules and civilization anymore.

And current society doesn't carry the threat of destitution? Many are experiencing it right now with the artificial cost of living crisis. Among other crises that have been thrust onto everyone over the past few years, all of which are causing some detrimental effect to people's lives, whether it be through things rising in price or people losing jobs and businesses etc. People are constantly living on a knife edge. Anything could happen that could put you or anyone you care about in a position of destitution, but I suppose so long as you're alright it's all good

[MrMan]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What do you mean? Do you think deer, beavers, raccoons, squirrels, moose, wolves, cheetahs, etc prefer to live in a house or cage or zoo? Come on. Do you think elephants prefer living in zoos and circuses rather than in the wild? What about lions and tigers? Haven't you seen that great 1966 movie "Born Free" about lions? It's based on a true story.

Dogs and cats are different. They were domesticated over many generations, and some say they were genetically engineered to be pets rather than live out in the wild, and that's why they don't do as well in the wild as other animals do.

Haven't you seen horse movies like "The Black Stallion"? They always show horses happier when they are running wild on the plains and prairies.

I also heard that some animals cannot survive in captivity, such as squirrels. If you try to cage one or raise one in a glass box or house, they will die I hear. How do you explain that?

A cage, no… Zoos? Yes. All creatures will prefer a controlled environment where they are given freedom only to the extent that it doesn’t threaten them with destitution as @Pixel--Dude is explaining. But true freedom always carries the threat of destitution. People say they want that but they don’t really. They’re just whining about having to follow rules. Anybody who loves to talk about how great it is to be wild and free and how terrible civilization is for domesticating humans, turning us into pussies and eliminating the warrior spirit or alpha male in us or whatever is free to go live in The Democratic Republic of Congo and see how wonderful life is when you don’t have rules and civilization anymore.

My guess is that most animals don't care and don't sit around thinking about whether they would like it better in a zoo or on the outside.

If the animals in the zoo have a suitable enclosure, good food, another animal of the same species to meet with, etc. most of them probably don't worry about it.

I do wonder if some of the more intelligent primates get a little self-conscious. I went to the zoo once and a male orangutan was laying down with his pelvis blocked from view by a kind of wide metal part of the fence. A female orangutan was apparently giving him some oral pleasure, probably trying to get him ready for another round of copulation. I read their descriptions and male was 40, and they'd put a 20-year-old female in there. She was probably rather demanding, and wearing him out and he was probably just rolling with it and enjoying it. He was write by the fence where visitors would be really close, but they had the 'action' blocked. So maybe it was from being a bit self-conscious at all these creatures coming by and gawking at them while they worked at making some little baby orangutan-orangutan. Maybe he got more attention since he and his partner didn't have to scavenge for food. Or maybe he could have experienced the same thing in the wild if he'd lived on Borneo. But palm or rubber plantation owners probably weren't going to burn his home down in the zoo.

[Outcast9428]

No animal is happy being “wild and free.” There’s nothing liberating about shivering in the cold every night with no shelter, sweltering in the heat, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, having the threat of getting eaten alive by some predator any day. If my dogs wanted to be wild so badly they wouldn’t refuse to go outside when it’s raining. Nobody actually wants to be wild and free, there’s no actual benefit to living that way other then not having to abide by any rules. But all those rules start to seem really nice once people actually have to live without them.

Why do so many people seem to be anti civilization these days and harbor these weird fantasies about living a more barbaric life or returning to the law of the jungle? Just because we have trannies now? I will honestly take anything over the Ancient, barbaric past. The only thing I can think of being worse is full blown communism and I’m pretty sure everybody nowadays who glorifies the “wild and free” life would instantly beg to return to civilization if they had to actually live through the world they glorify.

Also conservatism is not compatible with this thought process. The entire point of conservative values was to civilize the world, give it structure and order. This is not conservative or traditional thinking, it’s more like downright primitive thinking.

What do you mean? Do you think deer, beavers, raccoons, squirrels, moose, wolves, cheetahs, etc prefer to live in a house or cage or zoo? Come on. Do you think elephants prefer living in zoos and circuses rather than in the wild? What about lions and tigers? Haven't you seen that great 1966 movie "Born Free" about lions? It's based on a true story.

Dogs and cats are different. They were domesticated over many generations, and some say they were genetically engineered to be pets rather than live out in the wild, and that's why they don't do as well in the wild as other animals do.

Haven't you seen horse movies like "The Black Stallion"? They always show horses happier when they are running wild on the plains and prairies.

I also heard that some animals cannot survive in captivity, such as squirrels. If you try to cage one or raise one in a glass box or house, they will die I hear. How do you explain that?

A cage, no… Zoos? Yes. All creatures will prefer a controlled environment where they are given freedom only to the extent that it doesn’t threaten them with destitution as @Pixel--Dude is explaining. But true freedom always carries the threat of destitution. People say they want that but they don’t really. They’re just whining about having to follow rules. Anybody who loves to talk about how great it is to be wild and free and how terrible civilization is for domesticating humans, turning us into pussies and eliminating the warrior spirit or alpha male in us or whatever is free to go live in The Democratic Republic of Congo and see how wonderful life is when you don’t have rules and civilization anymore.

And current society doesn't carry the threat of destitution? Many are experiencing it right now with the artificial cost of living crisis. Among other crises that have been thrust onto everyone over the past few years, all of which are causing some detrimental effect to people's lives, whether it be through things rising in price or people losing jobs and businesses etc. People are constantly living on a knife edge. Anything could happen that could put you or anyone you care about in a position of destitution, but I suppose so long as you're alright it's all good

I'm not okay with that though, its why I support marriage loans. Marriage loans essentially give everybody a home. Hungary gives married couples $30,000 that they don't have to pay back if they have three kids or more. This solves two things... First, it gives everybody a home, secondly, it makes sure that people don't just live off the marriage loan alone. It motivates people to be productive, but it doesn't just hand everything to them. As a result, Hungary has one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world.

@MrMan I swear your sense of humor is borderline genius, the incredibly nonchalant way you describe these ridiculously funny events is comedy gold.

[Pixel--Dude]

Another reflection to add to the weird way people treat pets. My aunt died Wednesday. Her dog was left behind and I'm unable to take it. My parents are also unable to take the dog.

My dad has called many animal shelters about them taking the dog as it will be homeless once the council repossess my aunt's property next week. The shelters are only interested in taking in or "rescuing" young pedigrees as this is something they can sell or rehome. They aren't interested in homing my aunt's poor old dog and even the RSPCA have refused to collect the dog.

As a result, the only option is to have the dog put down. Which I think is a shame, because despite being old the dog is okay. It just makes me incredibly sad that we live in a world where people who have jobs which exist to save animals are only interested in how much money they can make doing so.