Lots and lots of good thoughts, but how about a few twists and turns to make the conversation even more interesting. Most of us eat pork, chicken, turkey, maybe even veal or farmed fish - have you ever considered the conditions that these animals are kept in for their very limited life spans? Does it make it okay to treat them this way just because they are being raised to eat? Most of us probably never even think of making a fuss about their care but we worry about overcrowding a clown loach! No, I'm not a vegetarian and I do try to treat all of my pets well, but every day millions of animals are being treated very poorly in the name of a cheap food supply and hardly a word is heard regarding feedlots or hundreds of thousands of chickens under one roof who never even get to see the light of day and are routinely killed in the prime of their lives. And pigs, who I understand are more intelligent than the average dog, are kept in very crowded conditions until killed for meat. Enough already!
And that whole thing about their being better off in the wild! Please! Between predation, disease and environmental problems such as drastic temperature changes, pollution, flooding, streams drying up, limited food supply, etc. the average life span of a wild animal is very short. Most animals never even get to maturity, defined as the age/size when they are capable of breeding. Even top of the line predators rarely die of old age. I'm not saying that we, as hobbyists shouldn't do our **** for the animals we accept responsibilty for but let's not fool ourselves into believing that life in the wild is a cake walk.
Bottom line for me is that I want to enjoy this hobby and I can't do that unless I know that I am doing the best I can to keep these animals, which give me so much pleasure, healthy and happy. I realize that "best" is limited by reality which means that I function with a limited budget and have to accept some compromises and I try to make good decisions along the way.
Beasts
