Why do people keep pets against their will?

I love animals, and I love interacting with animals. Pets that are free to decide whether or not they want to live with you and can come and go as they please are fine, but I want to cry whenever someone has a "pet" in a tank, cage, leash, or fence.





Why do you even want a pet if the pet doesn't love you enough in return to stay with you? And why would you even want a pet that isn't intelligent enough to love you and wants to run away at every chance they get?|||That's exactly what I always wondered, if you love someone you should let them go right? If they come back they're yours and if they don't they never were, right? Unfortunately the ever expanding human civilization has destroyed alot off their natural habitat and if you let them go, they will most likely get ran over by a car or die of starvation or something so... I think I'm torn on that subject for now. I think people should learn to treat their "pets" better. I think if a person's pet doesn't come back when they're called they probably aren't giving them a good life which is sad :(|||i agree to a point i mean i have had like 6 rabbits 2 cats a hamster 2 mice tons of fish 10 dogs not all at one time of course currently i have 1 dog 1 hamster 3 rabbits anyways i have experience with animals and some love you some dont it depends on the time dogs and cats nature is to love you but rabbits dont have the brains to love they think run around eat and so on if you let them come and go as they please they dont have the mind to comprehend your the one that feeds them they would die without you and they run away and die. but dogs are different my dog loves me and would never run away.|||aw.... what a sweet and unrealistic world you live in.... what is it that your doctor prescribes.... and how do I get some.





and they keep pets like that to keep them and us safe. If animals were allowed to roam all over, disease would spread and there would be chaos and pandemonium.





Any animal given the choice will choose freedom. But few family pets could handle the "wild" and would be dead or feral before too long.|||At one point, my dog would have run off on her own. And then would likely have been hit by a car or whatever.





But she's older now, and she sees me as her family. I could let her out without her leash and she won't run far from me. If I call, she comes running back.|||Pets don't love you, probably just see you as a meal ticket, since you do end up feeding them.





As for the leash, that's so large dogs don't go run off and attack a person or other pets.|||Are you serious lol this has to be a joke.





If they were wondering around they'd most likely be dead or "captured" by someone else.


They aren't humans, they don't think like us, they can't support themselves.|||Okay, have you actually EVER had an animal?





Okay, I admit, I contribute to the commercialism of animals. I have two dogs from a couple of pet stores; but one, I only keep them both in the leash because they attack other dogs. My female would dash over and try to rip out the throats of any other female, my male would try to pick fights with bigger dogs. It's for their protection and OTHERS. In fact, I don't always put them on a leash--because whenever we get to the local nature trail, there were often no cars, and no dogs (since I go pretty much early) so they were often let off the leash.





But, I guess I'm just awful for caring about not letting my animals get into a bloodfest. And seatbelting them in my car so they wouldn't fly out the window in a car accident. Whatever, at least I wouldn't be called irresponsible. Dogs have long been heavily changed and genetically modified for thousands of years by us, like Voltaire said, we owe so much responsibility for what we domesticate. My dogs cannot survive in the wild. They were turned from wolves into lapdogs since the medieval ages, and I owe them by caring and worrying for them.