Unlike children, whom we often make extensions of ourselves, take pride in, expect to care for us in old age, and brag about, there’s no reflected glory in a mutt from a shelter.
ZOE WEIL: On January 5, 2022, Pope Francis spoke in Rome and described people who have pets instead of children as selfish. He went on to say that pet keeping was “a denial of fatherhood and motherhood and diminishes us, takes away our humanity.” There’s so much that is wrong about his statement. Spoken by someone who himself chose not to have children, presumably for a higher good, the criticism is ironic…
Such people choose not to have children because they do not want to contribute to more resource depletion and carbon emissions. People don’t have biological children because they are unselfish. In a world full of children in need of homes and foster care, and in the midst of a climate change and biodiversity crisis caused by habitat destruction and carbon emissions, the choice to have biological children (rather than adopt) is selfish, full stop…
Many people adopt animals who need homes, rather than purchase dogs from breeders, precisely because they are acting unselfishly. I should know this, too. I’ve never purchased a dog or cat from a breeder, but have rescued 17 over my lifetime. One old dog we found running in traffic on a congested boulevard turned out to be a nightmare. Aggressive and unpredictable, Beau would occasionally chase my husband down the stairs, growling and snarling. We didn’t want to keep him, but we knew that it wasn’t a good idea to try to foist this problem dog on someone else.
We unselfishly cared for him lovingly and compassionately until he died. Adopting animals enriches, rather than detracts from, our humanity. Unlike children, whom we often make extensions of ourselves, take pride in, expect to care for us in old age, and brag about—there’s no reflected glory in a mutt from a shelter. Yes, they shower us with love, which is great for us, but it also betters us to care for them…
There’s no need for, and no good that comes from, the valorization of parenthood and the denigration of adopting animals. Why do that? Why create a stink about a non-issue?… And the reality is that many, if not most, families in Europe and the U.S. have both children and pets. Are such families semi-selfish and semi-unselfish? SOURCE…
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