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I'm seeing this term thrown around more and more. People referencing their pets as though they were actual children. I, for one, do not want to downplay the significance of animals in a person's life, especially when they serve a purpose such as service animals or therapy animals. Or as a companion for a single person or widow. But I feel like we, as a society in the US, have taken this a bit far.

Please tell me I'm not alone in this.

You are not alone in this. To value an animal almost as a human seems to be fairly disordered, at least.

steve-in-kville wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 6:37 am I'm seeing this term thrown around more and more. People referencing their pets as though they were actual children. I, for one, do not want to downplay the significance of animals in a person's life, especially when they serve a purpose such as service animals or therapy animals. Or as a companion for a single person or widow. But I feel like we, as a society in the US, have taken this a bit far.

Please tell me I'm not alone in this.

No your not alone in this. Although I am all for humane treatment of animals, it troubles me that some animals are treated better than children.

However we always have had a cat in our house, and they do add a playful element to our home. They also take care of the mice that seem to sneak into our old 120 year old house. Some animals do have a way of weaseling themselves into your heart.

A relative of ours ours has a dog that they had bred. The weeks leading up to her giving birth was almost as if they were expecting their own child.... all over social media and the like. They refer to the puppies as their "grandpuppies."

I support a local mission that trains dogs as service animals for disabled people. I get the bond that happens there. But when we start to replace children with cats? I gotta draw a line there

I agree. Recently someone posted on Facebook marketplace that they wanted to sell their dog as they were getting older and didn't want to take it along on camping trips etc. They had had the dog for 8 years. They were berated repeatedly for giving one of their children away. You just don't give your children away because you are tired of taking care of them.
We definitely live in a perverted society where animals seem to be held on an equal if not higher level than humans.

Biblical Anabaptist wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 9:14 am I agree.

Recently someone posted on Facebook marketplace that the wanted to sell their dog as they were getting older and didn't want to take it along on camping trips etc. They had had the dog for 8 years. They were berated repeatedly for giving one of their children away. You just don't give your children away because you are tired of taking care of them.

We definitely live in a perverted society
were animals seem to be held on an equal if not higher level than humans.

So many perversions, this is one.
Perversions written into the legal code, normalized+idealized in education+culture. Of biblical proportions.
The pride involved. God have mercy.

Part of the many hypocrisies the bullying world presents is, not only are vast sums of dollars lavished on pets, for indulgence and for their legal protections (beyond protections of children) while abortion of humans is normalized and promoted -
is vast PET WASTE and inescapable disposal, whether it goes directly into the environment, or is routed through land fills, etc.

There is much talk of farm animal waste, pet waste is generally+conveniently ignored.
Farm animals provide food and materials. Pets, nothing. No environmental offset.

There are various studies. Not presented in the mainstream.

The truth about cats' and dogs' environmental impact | UCLA
dog cat waste environmental impact from newsroom.ucla.edu

A UCLA study has found that dogs and cats are responsible for 25 to 30 percent of the environmental impact of meat consumption in the United States. Alison Hewitt | August 2, 2017.
With many Americans choosing to eat ...

i’ve always enjoyed pets.
as a child in a big family, too small house, my older brother had a dog (not a nice dog) i was afraid of dogs until i was older. i “made pets” out of anything that moved or breathed in front of me: crickets, crawdads, worms, a few garden snakes, a few Easter chicks. as an adult, we had various dogs+cats, and loved them. not a replacement for babies/children.
our parents helped us learn the important differences in definitions of love. parents teach+model boundaries.
one way or another, it’s part of every child’s education+maturity.

evenso, with talk of the environment, i could not help but notice how much pet waste we had to dispose of, just for 2 cats and 1 smallish dog! a lot. it made me think of the waste that MUST be generated from “no kill” pet shelters (where we often found pets). the topic is largely ignored. (as predictable.)

This is a prime example of the unwieldy BIG BUSINESS power of political lobbies: PETA, and several more.

(i think) it’s also a ripple effect of broken homes, disrespect for human life, movement away from churches,
churches moving away from Jesus Christ. scriptures teach about caring for the earth and animals. no teaching about elevating animals, or earth, to the level of false gods. many are “there.”

It all results in “perverted society.”

BA:
.. They were berated repeatedly for giving one of their children away. You just don't give your children away because you are tired of taking care of them. ..

i believe it.
imagine responses to any suggestion pregnant females might want to dress modestly/conservatively?
OUTRAGE. unforgivable to suggest. or think.

You are not alone. We own a female Cockapoo and had her bred to a miniature Poodle. We got 9 puppies out of the deal. We sold 8 of them to city folks. For a little while we needed to change our thinking from "we're selling dogs" to "we're accepting the adoption fee for your family's new pet." They wrote the dog cards, they gave her gifts, they brought our kids presents "for looking after our baby til we could adopt him." It was insanity on many different levels.

Oh, and PETA is evil. PETA kills dogs. That's not why they're evil, tho.

You are not alone, Steve. The tragedy I see is that I’ve worked in places that had fanatical animal rights activists yet these self-same activists were proud they had aborted their own unborn child in the most violent fashion. I shake my head in grief for the unborn.