Sunday, August 2, 2009
Peta says having a pet is cruel and they all should be free -do you agree -with them ?
Answers:
I believe you are mistaken. PETA stands for, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It is a group that cares passionately about animals. They believe (and I agree) that it is cruel to keep animals in cages, or capture wild animals and make pets or zoo exhibits out of them.
Your small pet rodents, like hamsters and gerbils, are probably for the most part, pretty content with the nice habitat you provide for them. If their home is kept clean, and they have plenty of fresh food and water, I see nothing wrong with that.
Caged egg-laying hens, however, are another matter entirely! That is probably the cruelest thing I can imagine! I buy all my eggs from a local farm a few miles out of town. Way fresher than what's in the store, cheaper, cruelty-free, and I know where they came from! I'm hoping to get a home out of town so I can keep a few hens of my own!
I really don't think PETA actually encourages people to turn their pets loose into the streets! Can you imagine the chaos and accidents that would ensue? Plus, dogs especially, have been domesticated for thousands of years. Most breeds now aren't really adept hunters, and they would have to resort to foraging to find food. Dogs rely on people to take care of them. They crave companionship. A dog kept on a chain out in the yard is a very sad thing.
Cats could and do survive in the wild. What happens to them is getting hit by cars, or eating poison someone carelessly (or intentionally, in some cases) left out. Man-made hazards! Put them somewhere with no people, and they would do fine. However, I have never had a well-loved and well cared for cat that was miserable with it's lot in life! Cats are smart enough to know when they have it good. Having their food provided, nice soft places to sleep, being safe, and getting lots of love and attention from their pet humans, lol. I envy my cats!
Fish can have it good or bad, depends on the fish keeper. If he or she is someone who maintains a meticulously clean tank, doesn't over-crowd it, feeds proper amounts of good food, and provides an environment with structures to explore and plants to hide and sleep in, then fish have a good chance to have an easy, fulfilling life!
I feel sorry for pet birds. Especially when they never get out of their cages. Birds were meant to fly! If you must keep birds (and they are beautiful), please consider screening in a covered porch or deck and creating an aviary. The closer you can simulate their natural environment, the better for them. Only adopt domestic bred and hand raised birds, help stop the importing of wild-caught birds. If they can fly around, perch on actual branches, and have a birdbath, they'll be much happer birds! Would you want to sit in a little cage all day every day, year after year? They don't want to, either!
That's what PETA wants people to understand. Just empathize with your pets! Treat them the way you would want to be treated if you were them. Pets with owners who know how to care for their pets, and do so lovingly, have a joyful life and make a wonderful companion. Pets who are mistreated, or only given the bare necessities to stay alive, are the saddest thing I've ever seen.
PETA wants people to treat animals with compassion. Raising them solely for their fur, cruelly slaughtering them for meat, keeping them confined to little cages, instead of letting them roam free as nature intended, that's what PETA protests!
Those few zealots you hear about who throw buckets of paint on people wearing fur are the exception, not the rule. There's going to be a few nuts in every barrel. Most PETA supporters are normal human beings, who choose to not contribute to animal cruelty, and to one degree or another, do what they can to improve animal's lives and rights. Many times they are also environmentalists, trying to do their part to bring back the balance on this planet. That is what PETA really is. People who want all living things to work and live in harmony.
If you are going to adopt a pet, learn all you can about it before you ever go and look at them! Buy a book or two from a pet store, book store, or borrow from your library. Find out what it takes not only to keep the creature alive, but what it takes to make it a comfortable and satisfied pet. Realize that dogs, cats, and most birds live at least into their teens or twenties. You are making a long-term commitment to the animal. Pets aren't disposable! If you don't want to make that commitment, consider fostering pets, adopting an older homeless pet, or get something with a lot shorter life-span, like a hamster.
Please, get your pet vaccinated and spayed or neutered, if it's a dog or cat. It's the right thing to do. It will make a better pet, a better companion for you, and it's better for the animal. The shelters are full of puppies and kittens whose owners never intended to let their pet breed, it just "happened." Keep it from "happening" to your pet!
Sorry my answer is so long, this is an issue I feel very strongly about. I support PETA, the ASPCA, and the HSUS.
I do my part, and if this prompts one person to do their part, or learn about a pet before adopting it, or get their pet fixed, I will feel it was well worth the time and space it took up. Thanks!
The animals are here to assist us. PETA is a right-wing organization, they go overboard just like every other activist group. My birds have a great life and they are excellent companions when I am alone. Many animals spend their lives in service to mankind. They have always been at our disposal. We need them for the free labor (feed is expensive) and they need us to feed and protect them from predators.
Many animals wouldnt be alive today if they were not pets -
suppose PETA had is way... well obvioulsy turning millions of cats and dogs loose isnt going to work (they would become feral and attack humans) so basically we would have to put most of them to death... and others would kill each other.
suppose PETA had its way.. and everybody was to stop eating meat (and eggs and drinking milk)- all the chickens (even happy free range ones) and all the cattle.. etc would have to be slaughtered.. becuase no farmer is going to grow food for cattle anymore and nobody is eating eggs... so no need for chickens.. and no where to put them... (Chickens cannot live outside in the winter in most places)
now certainly I would rather people eat less meat - but nothing wrong with eating free range chicken eggs...
true - there are alot of bad things in the pet industry - I wish PETA would protest PET STORES selling puppies.. (puppy mills) but protesting ownership of pets is never going to be successful and isnt in the best interest of animals..
they need to pick their fights better...
No I love and adore my pets. They make my house at home.
I think PETA means well but they are just a tad out of touch with reality. Most of the animals people have as pets now, have been domesticated for so long there is no way they can live wild anymore. I agree that all animals need to be treated and respected as a loving living thing, but to not have anyone ever have a pet is a little ridiculous.
You can't turn domestic pets out into the wild, they will not survive. Once you train a pet to come to you for food/water/shelter, even if it is an exotic pet, they forget how to hunt and care for themselves. However, you shouldn't be cruel to any animal, that much I'll give them. PETA sometimes goes way overboard on their thinking. I know they are against zoos too, but if you look at most zoos today, they are trying to protect endangered species and most of their animals are coming in so injured or sick that they can not survive outside of the zoo complex, so they are actually doing wildlife a favor. And the natural type habitats they have now are exciting!
Some of the writers above make good points. The animals that are kept as pets would die if they were not pets. And if you just released them all, they would wreak havoc on the environment until they died of starvation. Like someone above said, they need to pick their fights better. Bad pet ownership needs to be addressed. Cruelty, for sure. But how does feeding and housing a cat that would not even exist, and would die any other way, constitute cruelty? My cat gets attention, love, free food, shelter, medical help, and safety that it would not receive in the wild. How is that cruel? That doesn't even make sense. And many animals in captivity would not exist at all if zoos did not take care of them. They would be extinct. With all the REAL animal cruelty going on out there, it is silly that this would be an issue. It is like saying we should poison all our children to protect them from the possibility of being in an abusive household. Don't be ridiculous.
I'm a hard-core animal lover, but PETA sometimes gets it wrong. If all the "pets" were set free, there would be a lot of suffering dead animals out there. What we need to do is be HUMANE towards animals. We created their dependency on us, so it's our job to do right by them. My pets are my children and I treat them as such. I love them, spoil them, see to their daily needs, spend time with them, talk to them, take them to the vet when needed, etc. I still agree with many things that PETA stands for, but they don't seem to think about the bigger picture with some of their ideas.
This is one thing you'll never hear coming from PeTA and the other animal rights people. Animals such as wolves lions tigers and bears they all kill other animals for food I'd love to hear what PeTA and the other animal rights people have to say about that. About 2 years ago in NC PeTA 2 PeTA workers was caught throwing dead kittens and dead puppies that they themselves killed! I eat meat I support the right to hunt fish and I support the right to wear fur coats. We kill something everyday it doesn't matter if we're walking and step on something and thousands of animals die daily that crosses into the path on an on coming car.
While I admire Peta's zeal to stop animal abuse it's things like this that stop me from becoming a part of them. While I belong to several human rights groups and various other social conscience groups I can't get past some of Peta's thinking. I know that if I did not adopt my 3 dogs (and 1 cat) they would all have been killed. How is that socially acceptable or socially conscientious? There was no choice to let them be "free." They aren't called domestic animals for nothing. They depend and relay on human beings to take care of them. Wow, someone at PETA needs to stop smoking the ganja as much...
No they are going overboard but i dont believe in tiny cages %26 not real sure with birds in cages unless they are in the backard %26 huge!! China etc have tiny cages the animal can barely turn around %26 that is cruel %26 some zoos do need to have much bigger cages
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