How do y'all feel about pet ownership (companionship, wat ev). at some point i seem to have developed an ethical dilemma with it but i don't really know how to articulate what exactly the problem is. it just kind of seems like emotional exploitation or something.

Rousseau postulated that Man was essentially good in a state of nature but society corrupted him by instilling inequalities, insatiable mutant desires, and false concepts such as ownership and possession that drive him insane. (i am taking some liberties in my paraphrasing)

What if domesticating animals is causing great harm to those species that we keep nearest and dearest. take dogs for instance, a pack animal to the core, but in our homes they are aliens in the pod, I have seen them develop debilitating psychological issues such as severe separation anxiety, eating disorders, nervous disorders, etc.

by doing selective breeding we tailer make animals that have qualities for our enjoyment rather than what is good for them, this type of breeding often leads to health issues and diseases that would normally be selected out of the species rather than favored. Bad hips in great Danes, food intolerances in many types of "pure breeds", and a whole host of other issues in other animals.

domestication has made animals dependent on us for their survival, many species couldn't survive by their lonesome anymore. on the one hand we are keeping these species in existence but on the other it is largely only for our exploitation of them. cattle, foul, fish, pigs, all used for the exploitation of their flesh, are we just emotionally exploiting our cats and dogs?

sure if we didn't want to own them, we probably would have caused their extinction, but are we just perpetuation suffering in our furry friends?

what are your thoughts?