On Pets as Presents

I've recently come across some people who claimed that pets made great presents. That claim always manages to disturb me for a number of reasons. Of curse they tend to romanticize it. They say things like 'Giving someone a pet is like giving them unconditional love'. They think they're being very thoughtful, while statements like these just show how they did not think this through.

They have apparently failed to realize that pet ownership comes with not only joys, but also a lot of responsibilities. That's why giving pets as presents usually doesn't work out. You can't fully appreciate the joys when you didn't sign up for the responsibilities. Whether or not to adopt a pet is a decision to be thought through carefully. And it is a decision people have to make for themselves. It requires research to find out a pet's needs and correlate them with one's lifestyle. Otherwise they will sooner or later be faced with responsibilities they are not equipped or willing to handle.

I believe that when this decision is made on someone else's behalf and they're confronted with the responsibilities or inconveniences they didn't sign up for, they are much more likely to feel resentment towards the animal and the one who gave it to them. Often the new owners are not adequately informed about the animal's needs and might make fatal mistakes. Either way, the animal is the one who's most likely going to suffer. It is very likely to not be taken care of properly, however intentional or unintentional that might be. The unwilling owners might even rationalize their actions to get rid of the pet. How many dogs are left on the side of the road or in dumpsters each year? Their owners were not adequately prepared to take care of them and many of them were presents.

Even if someone has expressed the desire to adopt a pet I would still caution against giving them one as a present. Simply because people are not good at admitting failures. If say they fail to properly train a dog, they might rationalize that that's because they were given an especially difficult specimen. Again they are likely to feel resentment and the one that is going to suffer is the animal.

The underlying issue here is that by using animals as presents they're being reduced to commodities. That's just not right. They're living breathing things just like we are. They feel joy and fear and pain and therefore should not be treated like things - even though sadly the law views them as such. I think that we'd fare much better, if we thought of taking in a pet more along the lines of an adoption rather than a purchase. You wouldn't give anyone a child as a present, would you now?