I just can’t stop thinking about this subject. I do think it’s important for humans and nonhuman animals to learn to live in coexistence with one another, which would be a good reason to have a pet. But on the other hand I just don’t think most people have the time, patience, or are even willing to do and learn things in order to accomplish this. Too many people are in the mind set that animals, pets, are here for us. And that’s just not right. People in general just don’t have enough understanding about the way animals think and behave. I learned this first hand. I have a boxer and tried adopting a pit-ameicaln bull mix. Both are great dogs, but I had no understanding of why they did things they did. With prior knowledge I probably could have kept both and prevented the problems that prevailed. For instance, after I brought home the second dog she was constantly ‘humping’ the other dog, which I found odd but a little funny. If I would have taken the time to research that this actually meant something I could have correctly stopped it. When a dogs ‘hump’ one another its to show dominance. That should have been the first clue these two dogs may not be compatible. Since I didn’t recognize the significance of this behavior it of course escalated and resulted in both dogs being hurt, myself being bit, and later on a family member needing stitches. It’s so unfortunate how often thing like this occur and are completely avoidable. Not every human gets along so why should every dog? I was at the dog park today watching people and dogs reacting to one another. I think people with dogs need to try harder to behave like dogs rather than making a dog behave as a human. I just couldn’t stop thinking how strange it seemed for us as humans to constantly have the need to pet every dog to walk by. This is not a dog behavior. Dogs read body language and use sent to get to know each other and react. How strange would it feel for us to walk around petting one another? It just doesn’t seem natural to me that we do this to them. But then again this is another example of how people don’t understand how to show dogs affection.  There is a place and time for petting but the dog park isn’t one of them.  Someone came into the dog park but would not take their dog off the leash. Big mistake. I considered telling the guy but I didn’t want to start anything so I just kept my dog close by. When dogs are introduced it can be a scary situation for them. The dog on the leash had several dogs all at once wanting to meet her, but she was on a leash and thus restrained by her owner. Today worked out ok, but I’ve seen fights start too many times this way. The restrained dog can panic therefore getting the other dogs panicked and thus starting a fight. Then the animals and or humans can end up injured all because someone who didn’t know better. It’s quite the predicament we’ve got ourselves into with this whole pet thing. I don’t know the solution. But I don’t see myself just letting this go. I am truly bothered by the way we see and use animals.

Another thing that got me thinking was the type of animals people have as pets. I was over a friend’s house where she had a bird. Whenever the bird would squawk to loudly or too often she would spray the bird with water from a nearby squirt bottle. I was really disturbed at this. I just don’t think birds should be forced to live their lives in a small cage. Birds want to fly! Wouldn’t you if you could? I just don’t see any reason to have a bird as a pet. It’s one thing to rescue an injured bird, but to purposely raise is somewhat disturbing to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the bird owner loves the bird, but does that make it justifiable?

Just look at what we do to these animals in order to call them pets. We cut their ears and tails to maintain a specific look for the bread, we de-claw cats so not to destroy the furniture, which by the way isn’t as simple as just cutting their nails. It’s a major surgery, and more like ripping off their entire fingers. People have even gone as far as cutting dogs vocal cords so they don’t have to listen to them bark! Look at all the inventions out there to prevent barking. People actually purchase dog collars that will send an electrical shock through the dog when it barks. How barbaric is this! I don’t know it just doesn’t seem to me we even deserve the company of such wonderful creatures if this is what we’re doing to them. And the worst part is even after all this they still love us unconditionally….. If only we could learn how to do that. Imagine, loving others, animals and humans, unconditionally.