{"id":757074,"date":"2019-05-17T08:28:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T12:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=757074"},"modified":"2019-05-17T08:28:37","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T12:28:37","slug":"pets-is-it-ethical-to-keep-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=757074","title":{"rendered":"‘Pets’: Is it ethical to keep them?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Through forced dependency. the lives of companion animals are almost completely controlled by humans. They can be terminated at any time for the most trivial of reasons, including behavioral problems.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

COREY LEE WRENN:<\/strong> ‘Although we love them, care for them, celebrate their birthdays and mourn them when they pass, is it ethical to keep pets in the first place? Some animal rights activists and ethicists, myself included, would argue that it is not.<\/em><\/p>\n

The institution of ‘pet-keeping’ is fundamentally unjust as it involves the manipulation of animals\u2019 bodies, behaviours and emotional lives. For centuries, companion animal\u2019s bodies (particularly dogs, horses and rabbits) have been shaped to suit human fashions and fancies. And this often causes these animals considerable physical harm.<\/em><\/p>\n

Particular breeds, for instance, are highly susceptible to painful and frequently fatal genetic defects. Highly prized physical features \u2013 such as small and large stature or pushed-in noses \u2013 can cause discomfort and difficulty in breathing, birthing and other normal functions.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even those animals who are not purpose-bred often face bodily manipulations which impede their comfort and safety. This can include confining clothing, painful leashes that pull at the throat, docked tails and ears, and declawing, which involves the severing of the first digit of each toe in cats. Pets are also often constrained in their daily movements, sometimes crated or caged, and regularly kept indoors \u2013 always at the whim of their human ‘owners’…<\/em><\/p>\n

Through this forced dependency and domestication, the lives of companion animals are almost completely controlled by humans. They can be terminated at any time for the most trivial of reasons \u2013 including behavioural \u201cproblems\u201d, for belonging to a stereotyped breed, or the owner\u2019s inability (or unwillingness) to pay for veterinary treatment’.<\/em>\u00a0 SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COREY LEE WRENN: ‘Although we love them, care for them, celebrate their birthdays and mourn them when they pass, is it ethical to keep pets in the first place? Some animal rights activists and ethicists, myself included, would argue that it is not. The institution of ‘pet-keeping’ is fundamentally unjust as it involves the manipulation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":757075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,18,23,25],"tags":[26,27,30,37],"class_list":["post-757074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-ethics","category-rights","category-welfare","tag-compassion","tag-cruelty","tag-exploitation","tag-speciesism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=757074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757076,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757074\/revisions\/757076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/757075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=757074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=757074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=757074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}