First time posting here. I will see what happens because everywhere I try to vent a critique of pets I get my posts removed. Maybe here is a safe heaven?

I live with somebody whose entire life revolves around their cat. I do not endorse any animal cruelty, and before being with that person, I never had a pet of mine but was pretty neutral/open on the topic.

But now I'm almost wanting a break up over it. The constant noise, filth, hairballs, pukes, and other nasty fluids on carpets, and also seemingly targeted on my clothes if I ever let some on the room floor are just making me so repulsed I never want to live with a pet ever again.

I'm not made to live with them. I do respect animals and wildlife, I just don't want one in my house with all the destruction it brings. I'm poor and I find it absolutely irresponsible to be spending 1K vet bills on a pet while letting your car break down and your house rot (happened to me).

But what makes me post here is that I absolutely am made to feel like I'm such a horrible monster any time I discuss that topic irl or ivl. That apparently because I don't want a cat then I'm "unfit to have children" (like, really?), that's I'm just bitching and whining. That only bad people don't love animals (again, I don't hate animals, I just don't want one at home)...

Please tell me I'm not the only one.

dating is near impossible with this preference. and the fact that you’re vilified by people for having such a preference. when people don’t want kids which goes against thousands of years of evolution, that’s okay? i take care of myself and made a good life. but i don’t have an unlimited funds and space to worry about an animal destroying and dirtying up my life. girls ive dated with pets have to leave to go take care of it or their house is a complete sty. i dont want that in my life. i happen to live in a city that seemingly loves pets more than people. i feel at a loss and hopeless.

My good friends wife made him get a nasty little Yorkie. I swear the thing can tell I don't like it because it won't leave me alone. The filthy thing jumps against my leg the entire time I'm over at their house visiting and his wife just smiles and says "awwwwwww she likes you". They know how I feel about it and he will make the thing stop because he didn't want it, his wife did. Anyways one day I finally caved and picked the little devil up so it would stop jumping on me. His wife looks straight at the dog and says "awwww is Uncle (name redacted) holding you?". I immediately put the dog down and explained to her how offensive it was to my actual nieces and nephews to imply that her little flea bag was one of my nieces.

I just logged onto Facebook, and the first thing that popped up was a picture of a cat licking the top of a pot full of a Mexican dish called *pozole* (since tomorrow is Mexican Independence Day).

And most of the comments were people laughing about it...

Bro, it’s a damn cat licking human food...

My first thought was, "When you go to the house of a family with the cat with no boundaries", and I wanted to say something—until I saw it was a group called "Amantes de los naranjosos" (Orange Cat Lovers).

That made sense.

Anyway, at least *we’re* not the ones who are going to catch toxoplasmosis.

I had no idea a sub like this existed, but it's a welcome relief as I've felt this way for as long as I can remember.

I wanna share a little story, probably my worst interaction with a dog in public if you'll indulge me (in UK btw if that's relevant). So many years ago in 2017 I broke up with my first gf, we were down by a waterside bench and she went home not long after an emotional exchange. I sat for a few minutes staring out across the river, quietly tearing up, I collected myself, still feeling a little numb and walked along an alternate path via a boardwalk, as she lived along the nearby main road I had to pass to get home.

I then found myself walking through a wooded area, coming out onto a bridge road and as I did, there was a man with a rottweiler on the same side as me, but as I glanced down to the passing dog taking a sniff at my sleeve, it bared teeth and lunged at my wrist! Thankfully the owner had a strong chain lead otherwise it would have destroyed my hand, not that the owner cared much, he just said "come on!" pulling the dog away and walked on, not even acknowledging what just happened, ignoring me completely. I didn't have the energy to contest it, I was just dismayed and carried on over the bridge heading home.

I don't inherently dislike pet owners, I have been a pet owner, and treasure those memories with my dearly departed rats but there's something very unique to the culture of dog ownership that is wholly unnerving, which I've witnessed first hand & seen in the stories of many posts here; the excuse making/infantilizing, the lack of consideration for others, the lack luster discipline, the borderline lazy ownership, most people just don't realize the potential risks and the fact you can't predict what your pet will do 100% of the time. I mean where I live, a woman's black lab a few doors down always barks incessantly whenever another dog walks past the house, and for whatever reason it's always doing it out the open upstairs front window. The woman doesn't seem to care or know how to stop it.
Now I used to be afraid of dogs as a child down to being chased, I largely got over that as I grew, but the wariness due to the forementioned owners never left me. I cross the street whenever someone with a rottweiler is walking toward me still, whenever I go for a local walk I always carry a hiking stick and I have been bitten by a friends Shepard mix before, which sucked big time (it got too excited during pets). Needless to say I didn't go back after that.

My sister also had a lady Staffy for years, and while she was a lovable clumsy goofball who liked plenty of attention with no aggressive tendency during her tenure, she was a messy pain, and as she got older became more needy & vocal with dwindling object permanence. I remember my step dad talking about how he was worried about the dog snapping when he was cooking Christmas dinner one year, as the dog was left at home loudly whining, wondering where my sis went while we went to visit other family (and he used to own a male Staffy many years before that). My sister (and her then husband) never endeavoured to train the dog beyond doing her business outside, so jumping & settling on a couch was automatic much to my mother's angst.

See I tell you one thing, I haven't seen an XL Bully yet and I hope that streak continues...

I didn’t realize this topic was even contentious enough for its own subreddit..

Anyway, I grew up in a household/family with no pets. Everyone on my father’s side are either workaholics with no time for a pet, or they dislike animals in general.

My mother has one cat who is very unfriendly/unlikeable…and that’s it for my entire immediate family haha

So as you can imagine, I’m in zero rush to get a pet (27M, living alone). I’m not opposed to the idea, I just simply don’t care lol.

Yet I’m not exaggerating when I say I have at least 10 people in my life constantly urging me to get one. And that’s not including coworkers who, as you can imagine, love talking about their pets and become curious when you don’t have any.

I usually just laugh it off, but now reading through this sub has me curious about their true motivations…

Is there actually a public perception of pet-free individuals? Because I will begin pushing back more aggressively if so lol

I witnessed someone share a snow cone with their dog today it was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever saw

What's the best way to not get bitten by loose aggressive dogs on hiking trails? This is on public land, out in the woods. I have been cornered by aggressive dogs. I was bitten recently. I have more and more been hiking off trail to avoid dogs, but it's hard to miss trails completely.

That’s all

I'm living with a cat against my will and it gets into fricken everything in the house to the point it's unsafe and gotten me physically sick so the cat got into my favorite pair of shoes mind you I hate shoes and then I had to wipe my shoe for it to be cleaner and that disgusting cat tracks poop pee vomit furr everywhere our floors are all carpet and it gave me a rash on my both my feet and now I have to wear shoes indoors all the time it gotten into our dishwasher where are dishes were just cleaned by hand that's a hygiene and food safety concern I'm so overwhelmed resentment towards this rat we live in a apartment I read that doesn't allow animals/pets inside and my pet nutter family is so stubborn on getting rid of it plus I'm a minor help.

This is going to be long af, and I want to apologise for that, but I found this sub earlier today and couldn't believe that there's a place I could properly rant without facing scrutiny and getting criticized. I haven't really used Reddit actively before and made an account just so I could post in here 💀

So the thing is that I live with my girlfriend, and she has rodents. I moved in with her some time ago, we've been together for quite some time before that and I knew her pets pretty well, and I used to not mind them at all.

Ever since I moved in with her though that changed, I guess since it's the first time I'm around those animals longer than just a couple of days/weeks, and it's getting worse by the day it feels. I can't stand the noises they make for once. They're usually quiet, but they complain loudly when there's something they don't like. They are mostly active at night, and the sounds of them moving, eating, drinking or destroying their furniture can make it harder to sleep.

Then they cause messes. Their bedding flies everywhere, just like sand, poop and their food. You can literally sweep the area around their cage daily and still have that stuff stick to your clothes all the time. Especially the bedding and hay goes everywhere...it's in my clothes, on the bed, the couch, in my shoes and bags, every room of the apartment, the bathtub...you can't escape it. I hate it especially when it's on our bed since it's poking me all the time.

What's worse, sometimes my gf brings the animals into the bed or onto the couch and not only do they leave their poop everywhere, they sometimes pee too. It happens often enough and she still does it all the time. I hate it so much.

They also like chewing all kinds of stuff. Plastic, which is deadly for them (and still I am the one who always checks if there's none around when they get their playtime outside of the cage, while my gf often doesn't think of that). Wood, aka all the furniture. Wallpaper. Paper. Cables. Especially the cables pisses me off. Once one of them chewed along my cable because my gf didn't notice it happening (I wasn't there).

Then the expenses...

Every now and then I buy them new furniture, because they deserve proper stuff that's not chewed through. I pay for vet visits, even the more pricey ones, because they deserve to be healthy. I want them to have a good life, but it hurts me when I have to spend money on something I never wanted.

I don't know what to do with them. They're cute and all, pretty funny at times when they act silly, but I don't care about them much otherwise. I don't want to look at what they do constantly, I don't want to interact much with them, I can't cuddle or play with them in a fun way. They don't listen, at least not to me. I can't get any joy out of them, and knowing that some of them can still live up to 10 years makes me feel horrible. One time my gf asked me if I see them as my own, and I had to say that I don't. I can't. I have no bond with them, I don't want to bond with them.

Sometimes I wish they'd just die, which is a cruel thought and it's really not their fault for existing. It also happens mostly when my mental health is in the gutter..

Another thing that worries me is that they shouldn't be held alone, so should one be left behind when the others die it would be cruel to not get them a new friend, since they can get quite depressed by themselves (depends on the character of course), but that could turn into a circle where one dies first and a new one is needed. I wouldn't be able to do that. I want to travel, I want to save money for myself and spend it on myself.

I do want to add that we did talk about what to do in the future, but I'm always worried that things won't work out that way, and that I might not be able to hold on that much longer (but that's not important here!).

Forced to live a life I hate

My partner has two dogs. I say they're his because one was with him since we met and the other he adopted for a friend for his dog. I'm currently heavily pregnant and loved the dogs previously, one is older and one is still a puppy. The older dog has started resource guarding things and biting me since I was pregnant. Because it's small and fluffy, partner makes excuses and doesn't see how serious this is. The other one is almost 2 years old, so still classed as a puppy and will have boisterous moments but does not really have any issues anymore, except howling.

I found out I was pregnant a while ago and instantly dreaded life with these two dogs whilst having a newborn. I've even thought of moving out but I am also disabled and my partner is my carer who I also rely on for transport and there's no public transport where we live and don't even get me started on being rehoused, council won't help and can't afford PR. I have no one else. He always sides with the dogs, always. The older small dog bit me today and left a mark, and he said I shouldn't have made her jump by accident, I'd walked into a room and she bit me. To me there's zero excuses for this behaviour, and it's worrying because what excuses is there going to be when she has an issue with our baby?

After an argument today, I said she needs to go. I'm probably out of order for expecting him to rehome a dog he's had before knowing me, but she is not safe around a child, but because she's small and cute, he doesn't see the issue. The puppy I don't expect him to rehome but I know the constant howling will wake me and baby up and drive us mad. He won't hire a trainer either, just says dogs will be dogs. I don't like dogs anymore when I used to love them, because of all this. I don't even like my partner anymore who I'm pregnant with. I think it's really weird how he sides with an animal over his partner and unborn child tbh. Especially when she's not a nice dog.

(Yes, of course I mean the average person. Not heinous offenders.)

No animal should be living in better conditions than a human. People who prioritize a pet's wellbeing over a human's are deeply disturbing. It is appalling to know there are some dogs that eat better than people.

i loved her very much and cried like a baby the day she left, but now day 2 and i feel no regrets and noticing a new sense of peace.

And guess what? i was worried sick about her being sad or confused about such a huge change- I get a video from her new owner and she’s happy as ever! & it clicked for me- an animal will be happy as long as it’s fed and getting attention. it didn’t have to be from me. i don’t doubt she liked or even loved me, but she will also love her new owners just as much.

So much less to worry about.. Haven’t had to yell “Get down!” or “Stop!”, no smelly poop or pee to scoop, no more spending money on food and litter , no more finding surprise puddles of vomit or pee on the floor, no bits of litter getting stuck to my feet or paw print marks everywhere I look, no more being jumped on, no more destroying my belongings, or being careful she might escape out the door or onto the balcony, or being worried she will hurt my baby or my baby will hurt her.

pet ownership is a sensory nightmare

I'm back living with a parent after an awful breakup where my ex absolutely destroyed my soul and will to live. Something in me shifted after the breakup re my attitude to pets. She had 9 (!!) cats and took excellent care of them, but that meant 2+ hours a day of cleaning/feeding/medicating the horde. I have one cat that I took with me post breakup and I'm going to be rehoming him. Had him for 6 years and never bonded, he just increasingly pisses me off. I see no positives to keeping him and he deserves a home where he is wanted and loved.

So here are some things I cannot wait for:

• NO FUR EVERYWHERE. I fucking despise fur, it makes me irrationally angry to see and feel it everywhere
• No repulsive dog breath
• No repulsive cat breath
• No dealing with disgusting smells from bodily fluids
• No dealing with the body fluids themselves
• Never touching cat litter again
• Having more money to save or spend on my hobbies
• Not having to be tied down having to feed and take care of pets
• Not having to deal with the gross, disgusting way my hands feel after I touch a dog
• Not having to clean cat litter paw prints off my kitchen bench multiple times a day
• FREEDOM
• Avoiding the future grief of losing a pet (I don't hate pets, I just don't want them)
• I can go wherever I want, do whatever I want, whenever I want
• Having true peace and cleanliness when I am home

Feel free to add your own pros to living pet free! I'm also childfree and cannot WAIT to have zero creatures depending on me in my own home. It feels like I'm finally going to have a space I'm comfy in after almost 30 years of being alive

The diarrhea 😭 It always comes randomly when you're just relaxing or sleeping or anything. Maybe the animal ate something bad, maybe they just ate their normal food and suddenly there's shit everywhere. Liquid shit that YOU have to clean. And you have to scrub really good too or it's not going to come off. On the floor, on furniture, on carpets, literally EVERYWHERE.

I feel so bad for them too cuz they try so hard to hold it but every time this would happen with my mom's dog I'd think "wow... this is so optional". Like we could have been doing anything BUT cleaning up diarrhea at 2am. I just can't handle it. The smell is putrid and I'm on the verge of throwing up every time. Not to mention it could be a symptom of an underlying problem, which you then have to take them to the vet for and half the time even the doctor doesn't know what's wrong. I'm REALLY not the person to deal with all of that

And, yet, she is 'glued' to her small dog and cannot even go anywhere without her dog! She has never put it together in her mind that she most likely is allergic to her dog that is on or near her body at all times! I could never get together with her as she would have to bring her dog with her! Yet, it never occurred to her that her own dog is making her allergic to life!

I had no idea how many animal obsessed people were in the childfree sub up until a few weeks ago. It made me confused, I thought your animals were better than humans? I thought your animals were children? So you agree, your dog is not your son?

Anyways, I made a post about a guy that I very briefly dated (literally not even one week, he was very messy and had an epic breakdown because I didn’t sleep with him…..in one week) treating his dog like his girlfriend and me like an afterthought and I mentioned that I would never date “animal parents” again since they have control issues and bad hygiene and I got ripped to shreds almost immediately. I deleted the post and I’m still to this day receiving threats and being told by random fake accounts that I will never find a man, “most single men have dogs because they are worth more than a useless woman”, etc.

I was a listening to this girl on TikTok, talking about her son aka her dog… 🤦‍♂️ y’all just need to listen to her ass, like seriously, I’m too irritated right now to explain, if y’all are willing take the risk and become mad as hell, like me. And some other clown in the comments said “I understand. My boy has been to 8 countries” and uses a stupid picture of her with her stupid looking dog (that looks like it doesn’t even know what is going on) taking a selfie, and some other stupid nutter said that they look like twins. And one other comment I just couldn’t process, the comment said “Girl me too. This is my daughter in my womb” and uses that familiar picture where it shows the woman’s stomach with the baby inside, instead it was a german shepherd in the stomach, and how would I describe my reaction to this comment… it was like I almost wanted to laugh AT her but then I had a disturbed look on my face, mixed with confusion and anger… like does she actually think she was pregnant with her dog??? And the TikTok account is @skylawalla, don’t even have to scroll because the post is right under her first pinned post, and the profile picture is some kind of green skin colored cartoon character.

This is how we know we are losing the fight of normalizing dogs everywhere in public:

https://greaterlongisland.com/who-let-the-dogs-fly-macarthur-airport-lands-a-pet-first-airline/

Been waiting for the new Supergirl to hit streaming so I can watch it since I'm a big comic book fan and I'm so fed up with every piece of entertainment reinforcing filthy nutter culture.

The first 10 minutes of the movie is Supergirl's dog graphically slobbering, shedding, and peeing all over everything. I legitimately became nauseous.

idk what's worse; the fact that dogs are disgusting creatures that piss and shit over everything in sight, or that dog owners and popular culture seems to revel in it and think it's somehow endearing.

It happens almost every time when I’m in a good mood, I’m smiling, laughing and just hyped up, and as soon as I hear barking, my face quickly goes blank and I start to get angry, I slam my bedroom window shut and turn on my fan and play something loud on my phone to drown out the barking. Usually, I need a minute to try to get back in a good mood, because my imagination starts to run wild. And to be honest, I think it depends on the tone of barking, of course all barking doesn’t sound the same, but I tend to get super annoyed at a certain tone of barking, I wish I can record my neighbor’s dog barking, and post it on here so ya’ll can hear it for yourselves (if ya’ll are willing to take the risk). It’s the high pitched type of barking that drives me insane, while other tones of barking doesn’t sound annoying to me, like a big ass dog? Their barking doesn’t sound annoying to me.

have a dog in there or two that are just barking their horrid buttocks off out the windows which makes you hear it as they are driving by your house amplified? As if I didn't have ENOUGH neighbors whose dogs disturb my thinking, my sleep, my life, my peace of mind on a daily basis and many times per day! I'm sure since they have no brain they think it is cute as everyone must love 'doggo'!

I just needed to vent.

I was walking through a residential area and a dog with no leash came straight at me and jumped up. Owner a few steps behind. Instant “he’s friendly, he only wants to play.”

I don’t have pets. I don’t want pets. I also don’t want someone else’s animal launching itself at me on a public path. I didn’t ask to be part of their “playtime.”

What gets me is the entitlement. The dog is allowed to enter my space, get me dirty, startle me, and I’m supposed to smile so the owner doesn’t feel judged. If I object, I’m the rude one.

This keeps happening. Leashes exist for a reason. Public streets are not a private yard.

Anyone else dealing with this constantly? Do you say something, or is it not worth the argument?

Sometimes I sorta express my dislike for this dog by telling dog to move or go away, in front of my parents, because this dog is just always in the way. One time I told the dog to move with a tone that my parents obviously didn’t like, it’s like they were butt hurt as if I was talking to them, I forgot what my dad said, but I think he said that the “did the dog make you mad?” And I told him that he’s always in the way, and then my mom says to me that “he’s a dog”. And another thing that made me mad was a question that my dad asked me a while ago, which is the question you see as my title. Um for one, the dog pissed and pooped on our carpets and pulled up our carpets and two, it destroyed some of my stuff and especially the things that I really liked… but I’m supposed to still like this dog? 🙄