I run a pet care company. Many of my clients treat their pets as children, true. But guess what? Most of also have human children. And these are people of all ages.
And the thing is, most of them grew up learning to treat their animals like this. They come from families that view pets as family members, as do I and most of the people I know. And many of us (not me but many clients and my parents for sure) grew up before birth control was widely available.
This has nothing to do with birth control. This is something that has gone on for as long as humans have been existing with domesticated animals.
Here’s a historical tidbit:
The Irish had a family pet called the Irish Wolfhound. It’s not the same as ones alive today, those are an attempted recreation of the breed started in the 1870s. It was actually part dog, part wolf. It was a typical family pet among Irish households.
That was, until Oliver Cromwell came along and killed all of them. Why did he do it? Because part of destroying and punishing a people is devastating the families of that people, and a good way to devastate families is to kill family members - their cherished pets.
Pets have always been important. I’m sorry you are so limited as to not be able to see that.
<@KeithInc.> #185781
Me too. They were a huge part of my childhood and my mom’s as well.