Neutral about pets.

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I don't hate them, but I don't much like them either.

Birds allowed to fly about indoors bother me. Dogs allowed to climb all over furniture bother me. Cats which pad across their litter trays and then roam freely on people's worktops/countertops where food is prepared, bother me enough to make my stomach churn. I won't take food or drink offered by anyone who allows a cat or cats to do that.

I know there are people on here who rave about their pets, but I just don't get it. Why would you want something which - if allowed to roam outdoors - can bring all sorts of nasty filth into your home? Or, If allowed to crap indoors, can spread all sorts of airborne germs and viruses?

Growing up, I had no interest in any of my sister's pets and have never kept a pet myself. Yet the knee-jerk nonsense 'never trust a man who does not like animals' is everywhere. The inference being that if you have no pets, you must hate them and are, surely, a monster. There appears to be no middle ground with many animal lovers.

I wouldn't say I don't trust men who don't like animals. People are all different and have different likes and dislikes.

For me they are companions. When you live alone, well, they are friends.

I don't have issues with germs in that way. I think our culture is way too obsessed with killing off every germ that might get in the door, and it's not healthy for people to have hardly any exposure to them. I have animals, and work with farm animals too, and I hardly ever get any kind of illness. I can't think of anything I've had that could be related to them.

But I understand, especially in this country of supposed animal lovers, that it can be difficult if you are not a fan. Most people where I live have a dog or a cat.

*puts up hand and runs*

I think germs are something you should just get used to. They are everywhere! Don't go touching dangerous things, like infected corpses.
If you can't touch anything germy, you can't touch anything!
I struggle with it, too.

Being around pets is a good thing for the immune system.

*Posts guinea pig to OSB*

I totally agree with you, pratchettfan. I do like animals, but I prefer to see them in the wild. I also dislike people who do not have their animals trained or do not take proper care of them. I dislike when you go to a house and the sofa is full of animal hair, the cat is walking on the table or the house smells to filthy dog. That kind of people obviouly are not very clean. And that is beyond germs.

What training can make a cat stop leaving hairs around the house? They'll leave them wherever they go. Cats are notoriously hard to train and some debate whether they can be trained at all. You just have remind them not to do things sometimes..

return-to-sender

Eh? People really think that way?!

I like animals in the wild, but I'm not crazy about pets. I like cats as pets but that's it. If someone doesn't like cats, or even eats cats, I don't care I'm massively speciesist!

Dang, that's something that's going to be really hard to avoid touching, what with the recent bubonic plague outbreak and all.

As I was a child I was fascinated by everything I found in my garden. I spent hours with watching insects and such things. I always had pets. They give you companion and they are just loyal.

Actually it's healthy for example if kids grow up with pets, it's healthy for their emotional development and give them stability. Kids who grow up on a farm are the most healthy kids; they are outside the whole day and have contact with a lot of germs - they bath in dirt. When children don't have contact in their early age with animals they are more likely to develop allergies for example. Early contact with germs strengthen the immune system. I have worked as a professional nurse and it's true, people are really obsessed with germs and 'eliminate' them.

Despite all those things, I don't think that you don't have pets says anything about your character but I noticed the love for pets as I was in England last year. I was there in a park and a dog ran in my direction. I stroked them and the owner was quite pleased about that. So it was easy to start a conversation and the ice was broken. I have trouble with eye contact and starting conversations, so I felt comfortable that way and I love dogs.

Google 'I don't like animals' and see what comes up. All 314m of them.



'Don't like' or 'not at all interested in' is, far too often, equated with hating animals and general weirdness.

Obviously you cannot train a cat to stop leaving hairs around the house. But you can trai. Your dogs not to lay on the furniture, or train them to use their spot, only. I had a cat once, and he would only lay on the place he had to do that. He used his box, groomed himself, I really did not have the hair problem. That comes from leaving your animals do whatecer they want. It is like with kids and people. You have to set limits.

My cat also uses her litterbox, and I don't mind holding or kissing her. I don't mind when she jumps on tables or the counter, either. I prefer her germs to other people's.