Owning a dog is inherently unfair to the animal. When you purchase a dog from a breeder or a pet store, you often overlook the fact that you’re depriving them of a natural and fulfilling life for your own selfish companionship. Every pet dog is born into captivity. Their mother was impregnated, most likely against her will, and when her offspring was born they were separated from their mother and siblings, and brought into an environment that can never truly replicate their natural habitat.
Dogs, being descendants of wolves, have an instinctual drive to hunt, explore, and form social bonds within their pack. However, when we confine them to our homes, we strip away their freedom to engage in these natural behaviors. They don’t even know their cousins and they usually have no friends that are other dogs. They are unable to experience the joy of running freely, chasing prey, or forming deep connections with other dogs.
You cut their tails and ears off and don’t even let them have a girlfriend. What kind of life is that? You cut off your dogs balls and turn him into an incel until the day he dies because it’s more convenient for your to not look after your dog and their significant other? Some dogs might even be gay and not ever get the chance to explore their sexuality because you’re too busy making them get a tennis ball that you threw across the garden and bring it back to you. You subject them to a life of domestication, limiting their world to the four walls of our houses and control their diets; feeding them processed ‘kibble’. We restrict their interactions, denying them the opportunity to form meaningful relationships with their own kind. We prioritize our own convenience and entertainment over their innate needs and desires.
We’ve all seen that episode of Rick and Morty. Everyone reading this would hate to be a pet dog. You might even learn to love your masters eventually, but no one in their right mind would give up their autonomy and freedom to be confined to a life of drinking tap water and watching commercials all weekend, broken up by sleeping and a 30 minute walk around the block before it gets dark outside where they’re restrained by their neck in case they try to make a break for it after that slight taste of freedom. To truly provide a fair life for a dog as a pet, I would argue that you would need to at least live on a vast, open farm where the dog could roam freely, hunt, and socialize with other dogs. They would have the freedom to choose their mates, raise a family, and live in harmony with their instincts. Unfortunately, this is not the reality for most pet owners and they are confined to living in a cul-de-sac and never even knowing their roots, for around 12 years until they die and you replace them with a new one.
We must acknowledge that by keeping dogs as pets in our homes, we are essentially depriving them of a full and authentic existence. While we may provide them with love and care, it is important to recognize that they are still natural beasts living within the confines of a human-centric world. You stole them from their family to bring them to your house and they have to follow the rules of a place that you forced them to be like eat the same meal everyday on the floor while your tastebuds get to try cuisines from all over the world.
I it’s time we rethink pet ownership entirely and maybe consider alternative ways to interact with animals. Allowing them to live a real and fulfilling life with actual experiences, dreams, fears, and hopes, instead of being used just for entertainment.