A lot of animals are smarter and have more personality than people who don't interact with them do believe. Even snakes, with their tiny little brains, have "owner recognition" and distinct preferences for who handles and feeds them, and widely varying behavior between individuals. You wouldn't believe how much personality you can find in a goat!
You're right in that some people can be more extreme than is strictly healthy about them, though. (Ref my past rants about PeTA and ALF and their bullshit. Did you know that riding a horse is cruel enslavement worthy only of the most evil? According to those whackjobs, I've spent basically my entire life earning a ticket to Hell on the backs of poor, innocent, helpless creatures.) I don't personally cringe with people call their pets "baby" but I am not at all looking forward to the day when some court somewhere upholds "emotional damages" for loss of an animal. That'll put a whole ton of complications and shit in my life that I'd rather not deal with.
I used to have 2 pet rats, Food and SnakeBait. They didn't start as pets, obviously--the snake just never got around to eating them. They were hilarious, rode around on my shoulders and never tried to run off or showed any kind of aggression. Sadly, I've become allergic to most rodents since then, and can't keep rats anymore. :(
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 05:05 pm (UTC)You're right in that some people can be more extreme than is strictly healthy about them, though. (Ref my past rants about PeTA and ALF and their bullshit. Did you know that riding a horse is cruel enslavement worthy only of the most evil? According to those whackjobs, I've spent basically my entire life earning a ticket to Hell on the backs of poor, innocent, helpless creatures.) I don't personally cringe with people call their pets "baby" but I am not at all looking forward to the day when some court somewhere upholds "emotional damages" for loss of an animal. That'll put a whole ton of complications and shit in my life that I'd rather not deal with.
I used to have 2 pet rats, Food and SnakeBait. They didn't start as pets, obviously--the snake just never got around to eating them. They were hilarious, rode around on my shoulders and never tried to run off or showed any kind of aggression. Sadly, I've become allergic to most rodents since then, and can't keep rats anymore. :(