My dog gets to come along with me on most of my adventures, and I work from home. He spends the vast majority of his time with his humans doing stuff.

When I'm home and he's chilling in the backyard, he has his friends (dogs and humans) who visit him through our back alley, he has a rich social life.

I think he lives a fulfilling life.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I feel like my two dogs have fulfilling lives as well. My husband and I work different shifts, so they're not without a human for long, and when they are they have each other. They get a lot of outings.

[–] spankinspinach 30 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

There are certain pets where I imagine it is. I've been holding off getting a bird because I'm grappling with the idea that most pet-type birds are wildly social creatures, and locking them up alone for 8+ hours a day isn't fair. And having an entire flock of budgies may not be realistic

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Some people have a bird room. Alternatively, you could go through the Falconry certification process to get a sky doggie that you need to take hunting periodically or it goes stir crazy

[–] spankinspinach 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

These are both good ideas and I will chew on it. I'd never heard of falconry certification before - I just assumed those who did it just knew how to train them (kind of like training dogs lol). Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

What I know is that there is an apprenticeship process, where they see if you have what it takes to care for a raptor. They are delicate little apex predators and need lots of love. They are also borderline endangered because of pesticides making their eggs weak and prone to cracking. I'm sure you've heard of the falcon sex hat? It was invented to solve the problem of failed eggs by making many more of them than normal.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (1 children)

the way a lot of people treat their pets definitely is, the only valid way to own a pet is to treat it as part of your family. The best pet owners are the ones who refer to them as their child, they unquestioningly take good care of them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

That's definitely us with our cat, even though we are all he has in this world, I don't think he'd wish for more if he could.

Apart from us to come outside in the backyard with him. When we're outside he's happy

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

It's capitalism keeping us from having home lives that is the inhumane part.

[–] brbposting 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What are the odds in the year 3000, pet ownership will be seen as a blemish on history? “In yee olden thymes, they had nazis… meat eaters… pet owners… $your_chosen_political_party-s…”

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

we've had pets for at least like 10'000 years now, i don't think it's going to become unacceptable any time soon.

What i do think is likely is for there to be laws regulating pet ownership, just like how we remove children from the care of irresponsible parents. I think i recall sweden introducing some laws on needing to register the ownership of pet cats and dogs, or something along those lines.