Yes, of course, but if people didn’t keep animals as pets then there wouldn’t be animal shelters or abandoned animals. Rabbits and guinea pigs forced to spend the majority of their lives in boxes because the big human cannot say ‘no’ to the small human when asked if they can have a pet bunny. Rodents in cages biting on the wire to escape; and children are told that Hammy hamster is doing that not to escape but to wear its teeth down because they continually grow. Animals are treated as things (toys, even) but labelled as “family members”.

I spotted a tweet recently where a woman’s dog had 7 puppies and she found homes for them all on the same day. She was so happy. Can you imagine what the mother must have been thinking when her puppies just vanished? No? Apparently neither did the woman or the people she gave the puppies to.

What does being stuck in a wilderness and seeing vicious animals have to do with keeping animals as pets? Special needs people have special needs… so why should animals have to be slaves because of their needs? You clearly haven’t thought this through. Ever looked closely at a guide dog walking with its “owner”? Completely miserable and looks confused at the same time. No matter how much training they go through they still have no idea their “owner” cannot see. When do guide dogs get to be dogs?

Cats certainly would NOT starve without humans. Humans think they’ve domesticated dogs but the majority would still rip your throat out given the chance. And anyone who calls themselves a bird lover, but keeps a bird in a cage, needs to see a pyschologist. I will say that the cat is the only animal that can be kept as a pet as long as it isn’t a house cat. Never being allowed out to go hunting or climb a tree because the human doesn’t want anything to happen to it is wrong. Better to have a brief taste of freedom than a lifetime of captivity, wouldn’t you say?

Yep, two cats (rescue kittens) and a dog (unwanted pup). I also have a bunch of pond snails and some tiny fish in an outdoor pond. I actually used to have pet rats. Won’t lie, fantastic pets but very short lifespans.

Even if they were released, there would be a lot of issues. There are many cats in modern world that are living on streets anyway, so leting them out is not much problem per se, exept maybe some thoroughbreds. The real problem is that there is so many of domestic cats that it would make lots of city animals starve ( not even mentioning territory fights with cats already living on the streets).

Dogs are much bigger issue, they are mostly to large to scavenge or traverse some parts of cities, and they are potential danger to humans in the area when starved. Most of animals in the city biome are hard to hunt for them as well

And before someone says “just send them into forests” or some other b*ll, there is less and less of areas not affected by humans due to expansion of cities and farmlands. If animals FROM the forest are going to farms and fields, I doubt overloading forests with more predators would help.

Next, there is a lot of animals we rely on to provide us with food, materials and work, even in these modern times. Mutualism is a “natural” interaction (depending on what “natural” means, but that is a whole other issue), after all.

Lastly, to respond to “Animals should be with their own kind (with their reproductive capabilities intact), not held prisoner by humans.”:

I remind you that humans are animals too, and even if we dominate and alter the world around us, we aren’t doing many things that other animals don’t. We are just a lot of them at the same time and on much bigger scale.

Oh yikes, that would be one scary familiar !! 🤣

That sure depends on how snarky the Booby is.
No reason why a magic infused critter shouldn’t be able to speak. 😁