Should Ethical Vegans own pets?

I have seen people post that it is unethical to use products that used animals in there production. Even to the extent of using a mule for plowing or taking honey from bees, “against their will.” It seems that the argument parallels animals used for creating a product to slavery.

I also know that many vegans have pets. A dog living in your apartment or house seems to be as far removed from its natural environment as a mule on a small organic farm. The only reason the animal is “OK” with this set-up is because of years of breading, breaking, and training that left an unnatural shell of its wild ancestors; the same with slavery. This conditioning makes it easy for them to be used for our companionship. Try raising a wild wolf, that you get from the wild as an adult, and you would understand this better.

Would not a dog catching a Frisbee or guiding a blind man be as bad as some raising elephants for the circus or caging giraffes in a zoo?

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Permalink Reply by Jennelle LeMoine on February 21, 2012 at 12:36pm

i have 2 cats. we rescued them from a shelter, they are sisters and i guess the story behind them was that they were found out in the woods somewhere abandoned when they were very very young, their mom must have been hit by a car or something, then an old couple found them and fed them and kept them until they were old enough to be put into a shelter. I have so much love for these two kittys. they never fail to make me smile. I've been through a lot in my life already that has caused some sever depression, and these animals really make me feel better. they unconditionally love me, and a lot of the times i feel lonely, so to have them to snuggle with and to make me smile is all i need sometimes. if we never adopted them, who knows where they would be right now. they have full range of the house and are never kept in a crate/cage. i respect everyone else's opinion, but i love my kittys.

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Permalink Reply by Sofie Kovalenko on February 21, 2012 at 12:49pm

Has anyone read the Ringing Cedars series? It is about a woman (true story) that lives wild in the taiga if Siberia without any modern conveniences .. not even clothes or ahome ... she describes how in the wild humans and animals are companions and help each other out..willingly. Like the squirrels bring her nuts and the bear helps to take care of her son. None of them are forced to do so but they have this kind of relationships. I believe humans are supposed to live close with animals , but on their own terms.

Until the breeding stops, and as long as there are sad animals being euthinized every day in shelters .. i think we should do out best to give these animals a loving home.

My best friend is my Husky, Shadow, who was a former sled dog and who they retired.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Fergus on February 21, 2012 at 1:14pm

Can you provide a link? I must admit... siberia with no clothes or a home seems pretty hard to believe. I grew up immersed in nature in the mountains of BC, Canada, and I can't imagine how it would be possible to not die of exposure without clothing and a home in such harsh environments.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Fergus on February 22, 2012 at 5:16am

Did a bit of research, and I've got to ask, is there any evidence for Anastasia being a real person besides Megre's word? Not to take away from the message he's trying to send, but there seems to be a fundamental lack of evidence for her existence. Am I wrong?

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Permalink Reply by pradtf on February 21, 2012 at 2:39pm

greetings sofie! and welcome to 30bad!

you write:

humans and animals are companions and help each other out

interspecies companionship is not an unusual occurance.

nor is animal morality (see the research of marc bekoff and others).

you may enjoy this:

amazing animal altruism

in friendship,

prad

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Permalink Reply by vegan witch Ⓥ on February 21, 2012 at 2:33pm

there are too many dogs, cats and humans on this planet which all interestingly enough have the highest cancer rates - dont kid yourself jonsey - your dogs want to hunt & hump, piss on territory and run with the other butt sniffing dogs - for crying out aloud you cant even reach your ass little own lick it !

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Permalink Reply by vegan witch Ⓥ on February 21, 2012 at 5:14pm

i dont think of 'animals' as sentient beings. They are more like food . . . . connect the dots hayley, your dog isn't a family member, your a human being, its a dog, and it wants to live free to be what it was created to do.

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Permalink Reply by Gorilla on February 21, 2012 at 9:21pm

But you are not even for humans procreating Vegan Witch. Would you not rather someone adopt a dog from a shelter as a "family member" than to have them pop out half a dozen humans to have as a family?

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Permalink Reply by FaylinaMeir on February 21, 2012 at 5:19pm

For me this is a touchy subject because I have two wonderful cats. One time I had a vegan on a different forum tell me I should just get my cats put to sleep because I am a terrible pos for "forcing them" to keep on living such a terrible life. And yes, they were honestly seriously. My cats are rescues from shelters, my grey cat has never had any health issues other than being a little fat, my black cat I spent several thousand dollars on to basically bring back from the dead ( I don't want to go into it) and now hes completely healthy. I care for my animals more than anything else, I have no children so they get all the spoiling in my household. I think we should stop forcefully breeding animals but I don't think we attempt to get rid of them all together. And, If something happened to my cats, I would probably get another cat from the rescue shelter at some point.

Another touchy opinion of mine is I can't stand vegans who thing they're above animals. Yeah big deal you don't eat flesh, but that doesn't give you the right to say an animal should die because we've domesticated it or that humans should starve because they shouldn't hunt wildlife. Most people forget we're animals.

My comments weren't directed at anyone inparticular. I've just dealt with this way too much over the past couple years.

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Permalink Reply by Sunshine on February 21, 2012 at 5:24pm

yea not die now . die off later after full healthy happy lives to stop the control. and turn that energy to each other and saving our own asses and in turn the earth we bungled (are bungeling) for those still wild so they may once again thrive rather than die in 100's (of species a day) to never return

oh yea and not over feeding our cats but rather ourselves with simple carbs ;)