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Paws for thought

Head Rambles Posted on by

I came across an article the other day.

I’m not sure how I reached it but reach it I did.

Should we stop keeping pets? Why more and more ethicists say yes.

My first thought was what the fuck is a bioethicist?  It sounds to me like one of those makey-uppy names that people like to give themselves to boost their ego and make themselves sound more important, like an Eyebrow Engineer or Director of Car Parking Facilities.  Whatever it is, I am none the wiser as even my old friend the Interweb seems a little confused.  Someone who deals with the rights and wrongs of biological something?

Anyhows, who ever they are they seem to think that keeping pets is a bad idea.  So presumably they don’t have any pets of their own and therefore know sweet fuck all about the benefits or drawbacks?  An excellent start to their research project?

Personally, I cannot for the life of me understand what the problem is.  Yes, there are areas that concern me such as puppy farms and people breeding dogs until they are grossly deformed [I’m looking at all you Bulldogs and Pugs out there], but on the whole I think pets do pretty well.

I decided to put my feelings to one side, as I consider myself to be slightly biassed, and to do the most sensible thing I could think of: to interview the animals.  I am in an excellent position here as I can garner the views of both a cat and a dog.

I asked Penny if she thought she should live here or to have the right to self-determination.  She was quite definite in her response.  She said that self-determination was grossly overrated and that it only led to decisions and responsibilities that she was more than happy to forgo.  She pointed out that she never had to hunt for food, as I feed her regularly every day and anyway, where else would she find a lovely soft warm dry bed to sleep on?  In fact her only complaint there was that I frequently kicked her during the night as I tried to regain some of the comfort of my own bed.  She summed up by stating that she had a warm, very comfortable house, with three or four couches to sleep on [when she wasn’t sleeping on my bed], regular food and as much affection as she could cope with.  She would be insane to leave all that to live in the cold wet dangerous world outside.

I asked the cat for his thoughts on self-determination.  He told me to stop fucking annoying him, and marched off to stuff his face with cat treats.

So should we keep animals as pets?

Very definitely [and that’s according to the pets].

Should we keep bioethicists?

Fuck that.  They can go live in the woods with the bears.

 

Comments

Paws for thought — 24 Comments

  1. What is wrong with all these people? Why are such self-proclaimed and phony-titled “experts” so obsessed with trying to destroy every single little thing that makes life a pleasure?

    My dog goes along with Penny – he’d rather be with me and share the joy in each other instead of being miserably “self-determined”.

    • These people seem to live miserable grey joyless lives and just want us all to be the same.  And what is all this utter crap about animals needing “self-determination”?  It just a ton of touchy-feely bollox, so beloved of eco-warriors and tree huggers.

      • Well, let me put it like this: I’ve not only talked to my dog about this, but also to some birds of prey – I’m a volunteer hobby falconer or whatever you want to call it. We fly these birds each and every day. So each and every day they have the freedom to chose “self-determination” – they don’t. It’s much easier to be fed each day without having to hunt which costs a lot of energy (unlike in our romanticised imagination, birds don’t fly for the “fun” of it, at least not, when they live “self-determined” – flying costs a LOT of energy, so they do it when they hunt or when they’re looking for a mate or patrolling their territory; otherwise they spend their time in a nice, cosy tree with a good outlook in case some unlucky prey passes by).

        So, these birds are “asked” each and every day if they’d like to be “self-determined”. Their answer unvariably is “thanks, but no thanks”. What can be better than the luxury of flying indeed for the pure joy of it, knowing that you don’t have to save your energy for survival? And these are not even “pets” – they’re wild animals at heart, even if they all are born in “captivity”. You don’t really “tame” a bird of prey – they stay very independent. Which you will find out, if one doesn’t like you personally – which can be pretty bloody and can hurt a lot! 😉 Unlike a dog (unfortunately) you cannot “break” a bird of prey – it will never, ever subjugate to a human “master”. It cooperates because that’s a comfortable way of living, but it won’t ever see a human as its “master”. If one wants to learn something about cooperation between human and animal without any “will to please” or subjugation, learn to be a falconer, and you’ll know all about it – and then learn some more.

        • Who would want to break a bird of prey?  Magnificent creatures.  We get the odd Kestrel around here – I can always tell when we’ve had a visit as there will be a pathetic cluster of feathers where some victim met his maker.  I’m just waiting for the Golden Eagle to re-establish itself in this area.  I wouldn’t mind making friends with one of them.

          Most domestic animals will head for base even if they are given the chance to “escape”.  They know when they are well off.

  2. In my neck of the woods there,s a lot of dog owners with very unsuitable breeds bull terriers ,mastiffs, husky etc, and in the past few years there seems to be an explosion of dog owning some times 3 and 4 in the same family….ive gone from being  a pet lover to being neutral… lets face it you can only look after dogs if your at home allday

    • That’s a wholly different argument though, and I wouldn’t disagree that there many who shouldn’t be allowed near an animal.  When we adopted Penny, the rescue centre owner gave the whole house and land a once-over to make sure we were suitable.  They won’t let a dog go to a home where it won’t be cared for, which I think is great.

      The article above though is arguing that all pets should be released into the wild and that all pet owners are cruel by virtue of having an animal in the house.

  3. More twaddle from the soulless Ministry of Miserable Gits and the Society for the Prevention of Enjoyment.

     

    • Anything that may give any modicum of pleasure must be eradicated.

      Can you imagine these people holding a party? !!

    • If that bloke is serious, then he is the very personification of evil!  Any decent bioethicist would cull him at birth.

      • So, first question about bioethicist Mr Liao – how tall are you sunshine? Second, if you think the rest of us are using too much material for our clothes have you considered the following: Having your legs shortened or removed?  Having your arms removed?  Third, have you considered STFU so as to leave more oxygen for the rest of us?  Fourth, have you considered voluntary euthanasia, say, at the age of 45?

         

         

         

        • He is probably a four foot midget with a massive inferiority complex.

          What concerns me is not his ideas [he’s obviously barking mad] but the fact that he is a university professor and in a position of some influence.  All I can say is that American universities must have incredibly low standards?

  5. Only someone who has never ever lived with a cat could talk about ‘keeping one’, as if it were some stupid fawning critter like a dog or a horse. A cat agrees, against it’s better judgement, to live with you as long as you feed it and if you get it right it’ll reward your servitude with presents like downed birds of prey and the neighbours’ chihuahua.

  6. Guess it’s time to turn out the cats then. Cats who have been kept indoors their entire lives not that they’re complaining about this. I open a door and they run the other way and hide under the bed.

    I imagine the first thing these suddenly freed, self-determining cats will do is kill every single bird within a one mile radius and then die like so many other (suddenly) homeless cats do.

    These bioethicist idiots need to learn that morals and “rights” only apply to humans and even then it’s highly questionable since it’s always one person or group that want to enforce their morals on others rather than letting those others go their own way.

    • It’s the same with our dog.  The only time she happily leaves the house is in the car.  She sometimes goes for a wander up the lane but then comes back and sits patiently outside the gate waiting to be let in. She had enough of “living in the wild” in the past.

  8. Ha. Just had a wander to the bottom of the page and spotted a little picture stating “securely monitored by”.

    So being a tad nosey I moused over it and found it clickable. Clicking it brought up this comforting three tickboxes ticked.

    Passed 25 Blacklist Checks
    No Malware Detected
    Passed Content Safety Check

    One question what the hell is a “content safety check”?

    Okay two questions. Is it a “fake news” interceptor program?

    Okay three questions. What happens if you post something gravityscan’s program or humans say is “unsafe content”, three strikes and you are out, banned from your own blog?

    • Heh!  Unsafe content is just content [links and the like] that may involve harmful stuff.  And by harmful, I mean harmful to computers and not little kiddies.  There ain’t no censorship here!

      If it does find something, it just mails me and I fix it.

    • They just need to re-educate him and fuck him back into the wild again where he will probably live a much shorter life.

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