I am serious. Every year, live animals are bought as pets, especially during festive seasons like Christmas. Cute puppies and lovely kittens are taken home, given care and, after a few months, thrown away, because the owners have got bored with them or got tired of looking after them. Puppies and kittens are not stuffed toys. They are living beings, with feelings and needs. If all you need is a ball of fur, then just get a real stuffed toy for a pet. You don't have to feed a stuffed toy. You don't have to clean up after a stuffed toy. You can sit on it. You can put it on the shelf. It's a perfect pet. Right?
When a kid requests a parent to get them a pet as a Christmas gift, I think parents feel that they must get them exactly what they asked for and after a few weeks they lose interest and it's the parents duty to care for the pet. If they don't want either . . . they'll end up in an animal shelter. While getting stuffed toys would prevent much suffering for a pet, sometimes one doesn't have a choice. Maybe parents should teach their children to be responsible pet owners before getting them one?
This doesn't make much sense to me, I mean, a stuffed toy is a stuffed toy and a pet is a living creature, so it's something entirely different. Instead of buying a pet, a dog or a cat, parents can get one for free from a kennel, that's a wiser option.
Of course, a stuffed toy is not the same as a living animal. The point I am making here is that if a kid cannot even take care of a stuffed toy, then the kid is not in a position to ask for a living animal as a pet. I can understand that parents tend to give their children what they ask for. However, let's have some compassion for the animals, too. They are living beings like us. They can feel pain like us. And they can die, too, like us.
Well said. I totally agree. I have volunteered in many animal shelters over the years, and the stories I have heard about abandoned animals were heart breaking. There are many shelters that are overflowing with animals, and it's terrible to have to see them being put down as there aren't enough people who want to adopt them. I really hate seeing pet shops displaying cute baby animals like living toys in their windows.
I have to say I too agree with you 100%. The human race is very selfish and greedy, and we are have this sense of entitlement that we often use to lord over what we deem as lesser creatures. It's very heart breaking to see people parading around with pets that they claim to love so much; sometimes ridiculously dressed, heavily leaden with accessories, sometimes even dyed a funky colour (eh,the latest craze), stuffed into an oversized tote and at worst out of boredom, these poor animals are then cast aside and forgotten about. Any parent whose child begs for a pet surely knows that in the end they will have to take over the care and nurturing of those pets? If they don't want to have to shoulder that responsibility, then they shouldn't invest in pets for their children. It's just silly to expect a child who's not ready to look after themselves, to look after a pet sufficiently and effectively.
I totally agree with you. There are actually statistics that show that there are a lot of animals taken into shelters right after the holidays. All of my animals are rescues and it just saddens me the conditions that most shelters keep them in. Not that it's not clean, warm and safe but these animals don't get much attention, definitely not what they deserve. Just something to think about before bringing a pet home.
There is nothing wrong with getting an animal as a gift so long as the child goes to pick them out and ideally can interact with them. So often I think the reason animals end up being given away is the kids don't know what they're getting or they know the kid has a bad track record but they only do it to spoil them.
I think getting a stuffed pet as a present would be a bit creepy. I mean, why not just get someone a real pet? I would much rather have a real pet over a stuffed one any day. I think the only way I would accept a stuffed pet as a present is if the person getting me it was a hunter, or someone that was into that kind of thing. The stuffed animal would also have to have some sentimental or spiritual meaning to it. Otherwise, it just comes off as strange.
I think I did not make myself clear at the beginning. I am actually talking about stuffed toys like teddy bears. I was not talking about dead animals which were stuffed. I do agree with you that if someone gave me a dead animal stuffed as a toy, that would be creepy.
A parent should not give a pet to a child if they think they can't take care of it. I remember I wanted a hamster when I was 8, so my dad took me to the pet shop to buy me one. I never got tired taking care of them (I was given another pair again by my parents plus a new cage 2 years later) until they passed away (due to me feeding them vegetables that had pesticide). So my point is, it's really up to the judgement of the parents whether their child can raise a pet or not.
Right. So how does the parent know whether the child can take care of a pet? There are many ways to find out. One way is to volunteer at the nearest animal shelter. This will have two benefits. One, the child gets to have hands-on experience about taking care of animals. Two, the child can see at firsthand what happens to pets which are abandoned.
