[johnea]

The most amazing thing to me, is how human pet "parents" ignore the fact that the dog has an actual parent, and the puppy is stolen off of it's actual mother's suckling tit, and handed to a human while it's still an infant, so that it bonds with the human, not it's actual mother.

As in many things, most people are willing to ignore any aspect that is not what's in their face, and appealing to them.

There are many other aspects to the thoughtless use of other animals to assuage a human's mental illness.

One of the main ones is projection: the animal can't speak, or otherwise precisely express themselves. Into this silence, the human is able to inject whatever narrative they desire. This leads to people claiming that the animal is much more responsive to their needs, and provides greater solace than another human. This solace is purely in the mind of the beholder. No one knows what the dog is thinking, therefore it's thinking exactly what we want it to think.

Another aspect of the entire pet issue, that I haven't seen otherwise mentioned in the comments, is the disruption to the public peace caused by many dogs. I have seen a couple of comments about dog shit, which is a major problem, but noise is also a significant issue.

Both of these are primarily the fault of negligent owners, which are the overwhelming majority of modern US pet owners.

[munificent]

> the puppy is stolen off of it's actual mother's suckling tit,

Puppies wean from around 3-8 weeks and aren't adopted until 8-10 weeks, well after they are weaned. This is obviously true because when people adopt puppies, they aren't feeding them milk replacement out of a bottle. The puppy is eating solid food.

My wife fosters kittens, and she frequently gets a litter along with the mother cat. In most cases, the mom cat completely loses interest in the kittens well before they are ready to be adopted out. Often, the mom cat leaves and goes up for adoption before the kittens do because she is no longer taking care of them at all.

[kaikai]

Human children eat food after a couple years but no one would argue they’re ready to leave their family unit. The OPs point was exaggerated but still valid.

[munificent]

Humans have basically the slowest development of all species.

I don't have as much first-hand experience with puppies, but with kittens, the mom cat is done with them and ready to move on with her life before the kittens get adopted.

[ivraatiems]

I think a lot of people, myself included, are acutely aware of this... which is why I adopted an adult rescue, not a puppy. Not everyone does it that way.

[johnea]

Every dog was a kidnapped puppy at some point.

The problem isn't so much having to deal with the dogs that have already been manufactuered, they should be supported as well as possible, the problem is stopping the ongoing manufacture of new animals as products.

[ivraatiems]

What does your ideal world look like? Dogs and humans have no relationship? Humans stop interacting with the animals we have domesticated and return them all to the wild?

I don't think there's a large constituency in this thread who's in support of "manufacture" of dogs in the sense of things like puppy mills. But that isn't what we're talking about with shelter dogs. Nor are dogs simply going to cease existing if we decide as a society that we don't want to continue our relationship with them.

[weinzierl]

"and handed to a human while it's still an infant, so that it bonds with the human, not it's actual mother."

If you continue this idea, then the dogs we consider "normal" all suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. The dogs we consider aggressive show the behavior that is actually logical and relatable.

[yoyohello13]

> One of the main ones is projection

This is why I truly believe AI companions are going to be the downfall of civilization. Now you don't even need to project what you want them to think. The AI will just actually say what you want it to.