I guess it isn't reprehensible in itself. Taking care of an animal, being assured he gets his/her needs covered and overall notice if it's living a happy life can probably be very gratifying, as a personal level for the pet and as a moral level for the person. In some instances, you establish a bond with your pet (and vice versa), which might point out that it isn't definitively reprehensible as its fate would have been largely different but not necessarily a better one.

There's also the fact that you try healing it whenever it gets hurt or sick, and certain animals (not all) trust their human partner enough to allow themselves to be taken care of, while at the same time greeting them or being their personal bodyguard as a repayment for a lifetime of trust.

There is, certainly, a morally reprehensible aspect of pet "ownership", and that's how that ownership is determined by the human side. Adopting a pet because you're a spoiled person and just wants one to play with it for a bit then ditch it? Physically manipulating your dog (i.e. getting his tail cut because it's more "stylized" that way), or maining it for the sake of convenience (like neutering it)? They sure as hell are morally reprehensible, as accepted and normalized as they might be.

No.

Please stop. Those puns are horrible 

I spend 3/4 of my time in America, 1/4 in gaza.

living in Gaza taught me to appreciate life more. We complain too much. I myself find myself complaining about things I shouldn't.

Life is more enjoyable spending time in a third world country.

If I were an animal, I'd do everything I could to get into a human home. It's cold in the winter!

Don't even start with me about the whole zoo thing buddy. Just don't. Educate yourself, trust me, it'll help you a lot.

Clearly the OP has never met MiuMiu, aka Boom Boom, aka Buttcheeks - Queen of the Relm, Protector of feck all, Demander of everything, Owner of anything she wants, the first and last of her name.

MiuMiu (not sure if we own her or she owns us) sleeps most of the day, gets tons of treats, all kinds of food, goes snagging around at night, demands to sleep in our bed where we have to sleep around her although we have a king size as she spreads herself right across. She has toys littered all around the house and literally cannot do any wrong.

If you live in Gaza, you must have balls of Steel. I know people who go there yearly to deliver projects and talk about how hard it is. How the hell do you get in and out without being harassed? This is a secret you must share as pretty much everyone i know has been harassed going in and coming out, and some even turned away. 

Eh, I don't know. All the pets I ever had were free to go whereever they wanted to whenever they wanted to. I once took care of a cat from a friend who died. I called it "cat" because I just didn't care about its name. However, the cat could come and go just as it wanted to. It could easily enter my place through an open window. Sometimes I didn't see the cat for days, sometimes it stayed with me for days. I would call that pretty fucking free.

Same with my guinea pigs I had when I was younger. They had a fence in the garden to keep them safe from other animals, but there was a little door from which they could get out. I had two guinea pigs. One of them stayed inside ALWAYS! It refused to go outside, it just didn't want to and I also didn't force it to do so. the other however loved going outside and running around in the garden. It never ran away further though, even if it could. Most of the time, it ran back into the cage lightning fast when some dog or cat from the neighbors came around. =D

It really all depends on how you treat an animal. If a pet absolutely wants to be free, you'll notice that. But there are also plenty pets which have no problem whatsoever with staying inside your home for their whole lives. It always depends, there is no general answer to the subject.

Well, I am Middle Eastern...I'd be shocked if I was harassed. One thing you should do is not make yourself stand out if you're not from there.

Also, I don't always have the kindest experiences there. Worst moment was when some IDF soldiers(about 10ish) came to arrest some teenager boy. Forgot what he did, but the soldiers thought throwing tear gas and shooting rubber bullets wildly was the right thing to do. 

I even had a family member be beaten up senseless by some IDF soldiers for being in a protest. Some disgusting stuff happens there. When I see people complaining about police in America, a lot of people don't realize that America's police are thousands of times better than the policemen in third world countries

Our cats were both rescue cats who would have been dead shortly not long after they were found if it wasn't for human intervention.

One of them was found as a kitten wandering lost near a busy road, it was near the curb when it was picked up and taken away, it's a road leading into a Cinema here which is rather busy I would wager the Kitten had less than 5 minutes before it would have had its head crushed by a car tire.



Honestly looking at him there... I don't think he minds being alive all that much :)

The other my partner found during a bad storm here, it was lashing rain and the tiny lost black kitten was crying out looking for someone, we think it had been thrown out because she is a long haired cat which had some poop down the back of her fur I think someone had literally just seen that she made a mess of her fur and chucked her out like a piece of rubbish to die on the street. She got picked up and taken home, we washed her off and while she was rather shaken for a good few months and generally scared she has now (7 years later) forgotten everything about that night where she was left to die because she made a mess on her fur.