A big argument against them is that they prefer euthanizing homeless animals to keeping them as pets. I understand the instinctual outrage upon hearing that, because I grew up with dogs and now have a cat, and pets are 100% family members to me. However, I think most people, if given the choice between being euthanized or being kept in comfort without any agency or ability to leave, would at least say they prefer the former (pethood is certainly more comfortable than most prisons, but I do things like pick my cat up and pet/cuddle her that we would see as a special kind of hell if we were kept by someone and physically overpowered and stroked by someone, even if we thought we liked it at the time), and I understand the ethical position of bestowing that dignity on pets. I think the application of it is abhorrent, but I can see how someone could believe it’s right.

Given that we’ve bred passivity and love for us into dogs and that cats will just follow a person home or walk into a house and stay there, I don’t think it’s so clear cut as choosing what we would want for them. Especially with outside cats, who ostensibly choose where they want to be, but that brings up additional issues, like their effect on local wildlife. Even in MENA, where they’re native, humans have artificially increased their population to the point that they still present a threat to the ecosystem.

It’s a giant mess of a moral conundrum, imo, and there is no way to proceed without the possibility of harming pets. I definitely don’t think the right response is to euthanize all pets, but I can see why they do. I think euthanizing them all is monstrous, but I worry that my cat would see my keeping her inside as equally monstrous. I believe she loves me and would prefer to be with me than not, but I can only go off her body language. Hell, it could even be that house pets are suffering from a form of Stockholm syndrome and they would be happier without us and they don’t realize it, let alone communicate it to us.

I don’t have a solution. Again, I have a cat, so I’m clearly acting as though pet ownership is morally acceptable, but I think I’m avoiding really thinking it out because I’m afraid I might settle on it being ethically wrong. I love my cat and want to adopt another when we move into a larger space, and I don’t want to deprive myself of the joys of future pets, which is pretty cowardly, but I’m okay with that right now, tbh. I feel a little guilty about that, but it’s outweighed by my love for Nora.