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Are Pets Ethical?

2016-11-18 · explainer · Lex Croucher · 3:45 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Everyday life, Science & nature) · mode: Personal essay · tags: guest or collab, calendar ritual

Guest host Lex Croucher, with her adopted cat Felicity, asks whether keeping pets is ethical: a long comfortable life versus a short natural one; she concludes that since domestication cannot be undone, giving an adopted animal a loving home is good.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Happy Pizzamas; a tough year; Lex introduces herself and her adopted cat Felicity; the butt-scoot story

  • ★ Lex Croucher: Lex says it has been a tough few weeks and a tough year, even for her cat, who does not really understand celebrity deaths or politics. (playful) — 00:00:01
  • ★★ Lex Croucher: Lex introduces her cat Felicity: an indoor cat all her life, nine years old, adopted about a month ago, friendly and fond of laps. — 00:00:15

00:00:37 — What Lex gets from owning a cat (routine, purpose, responsibility, relaxation) and what the cat gets (food, shelter, catnip, a sleepless owner)

  • ★★ Lex Croucher: Lex says owning a cat is good for her, selfishly: it gives routine and purpose, makes her responsible for someone else and so for herself, and relaxes her. — 00:00:37
  • ★★ Lex Croucher: Lex says the cat gets food, shelter, water, catnip and an owner who, like the parent of a newborn, has accepted years of poor sleep. (playful) — 00:01:04

00:01:31 — The weirdness of keeping an animal at home: natural habitat, indoor vs outdoor, rabbit lifespans, a long comfortable life vs a short natural one

  • ★★★ Lex Croucher: Lex says the more she thinks about it, the weirder it is to have brought an animal into her home: Felicity is domesticated, but a bedroom is not her natural habitat. (hedged) — 00:01:31
  • ★ Lex Croucher: Lex avoids the indoor-versus-outdoor cat debate, but says Felicity, never outside and older, would be in trouble if simply let out the front door. (playful) — 00:01:40
  • ★★ Lex Croucher: Lex says she looked up rabbit lifespans: eight to twelve years domesticated, one to two years in the wild, where animals face hunger, cold, illness and predators. — 00:02:13
  • ★★★ Lex Croucher: Lex asks whether it is better for an animal to have a long, comfortable life that is not instinctive, or a short, natural one running free and terrified. (unsure) — 00:02:28

00:02:50 — Overbreeding and overpopulation; spay, neuter, adopt; rescue animals are not damaged; she is happy to give a loving home

  • ★★★ Lex Croucher: Lex says our love of pets has caused overbreeding, creating a huge overpopulation problem that leaves animals without homes. — 00:02:50
  • ★★ Lex Croucher: Lex relays that animal charities urge people to spay and neuter their pets and to adopt rather than shop when getting an animal. — 00:02:57
  • ★★ Lex Croucher: Lex says people think rescue animals are damaged and difficult, but Felicity is neither. — 00:03:03
  • ★★★ Lex Croucher: Lex thinks her cat is very happy with her; she cannot undo the domestication of pets, so she is happy to give one a loving home. (hedged) — 00:03:14

00:03:21 — Who first domesticated wild animals? No answers; thanks for having her on vlogbrothers during Pizzamas; sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Lex Croucher fills in for Hank on the last day of Pizzamas to talk about whether pets are ethical with her cat Felicity. — video description · Hank Green, Pizzamas

Humor (significant)

  • After Felicity scoots her itchy butt across the bed sheet, Lex forgets and sleeps on it; she clarifies she means the sheet — 00:00:31

    “But at this point, in terms of hygiene, there’s basically no difference.”

  • Lex says a cat is basically a furry hot water bottle with a face — 00:00:53

    “If you picture that literally, it’s not very relaxing.”

  • Imagining releasing her elderly indoor cat through the front door to run free — 00:01:50

    “Good luck with the big metal dogs with wheels.”

  • Lex imagines her cat eyeing the tall climbing tree she bought it — 00:02:02

    “What—what are you trying to pull here? That is not a tree.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: animal ethics · Felicity · Lex Croucher · pet

Also: domestication · neutering · overpopulation in domestic pets · Pizzamas

Also centred on animal ethics: Project for Awesome: Explanation and Humane Societies

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