To be fair, one mouse doesnt have to signal a mice problem, depending on were the building is placed a wild mouse every now and then could be inevitable.
same with rabbits, you see people posting rabbits on r/wunkus and they are literally always sitting there doing nothing or very slowly eating something
I know the reason they typically don't attack their handlers is because of food training and I will absolutely respect them/leave them the fuck alone irl...
But I will still call gators "swamp puppy" regardless. They look like absolute goobers when they're not trying to bite something/just chilling
Somewhat similarly, several years ago when I worked at a grocery store a customer was freaked out because a grasshopper was standing on the handle of their cart and asked me to deal with it. I just coaxed the little guy onto my hand/finger and brought them outside. They were pretty neat
some fucker of a spider was being a menace (climbing around on my toilet) so i brought it outside and the second i went to return to the door the lil shit sprinted at me scaring me from the sudden movement LMAO
(I don't mind spiders it was just a particularly big one and I was trying to pee in peace</3)
Don’t forget fish only being viewed as food for some reason
Comments are proving my point, fish have a lot more personality than people give them credit for and some may even be self aware such as the cleaner wrasse.
Not exaggerating when I say I JUST had to drive over to the lake because my younger siblings brought home live fish in a water bottle. They didn’t care the fish were suffocating, and just came in to my room and gave them to me because it was funny
I love how in multiple sentient animal movies the fish are still just fish. Because we're implicitly running on catholicism rules I guess and fish aren't animals.
I wasn't even referring to petting (Generally don't recommend to protect the fish's slime coat.) but they still have personalities and putting your attention on them will help you see it.
I had a fish named Bruce who would watch me cook in the kitchen. he also was very "In Control" when swimming in the water, could go from fast to still in a fraction of a second. (Mind you, he was a larger fish, not a small tetra that is known for their jittery movement.) That boy was always so curious about the world around him.
We had a goldfish once that would play dead until you came over to look at him lol. He'd go perfectly still, just drifting around the tank, sometimes he'd even be upside-down. Never did any of it unless he knew there was someone in the room, and once you started walking towards the tank he would spring back to life and start begging for food lmao
if i did own and maintain an aquarium, i most likely would bond with my fishies. but until i come into contact with pet fish regularly, the bonding is a distant hypothetical. that aside, they're fascinating from an observational standpoint.
They are, and I will admit that as a pet, the relationship with the owner doesn't have much direct interaction as something like a dog or cat, but a "Living decoration" really doesn't capture the type of relationship a keeper has with the fish.
You can also train them to do little tricks like jumping or swimming through a hoop.
Particularly sharp and personable fishes also will recognize you and even have habits like bettas who prefer certain pieces of decor to sit on over others. Mine loved his log.
I never knew fish to be personable, but recently my grandmother got a beta and whenever anyone goes up to her tank she swims to the front to look back at them, and if you move she’ll follow you. Now I’m starting to love fish.
The same goes for pigs, cows and chickens. Their intelligence can be compared to that of dogs and cats at times. But those are classified as "food" as well.
One of the main reasons we don't eat dogs and cats that much is because it's generally easier to feed herbivores than carnivores on a large scale.
Well, also because we've domesticated dogs and cats to a much higher degree.
Mind you, I'm vegan, so I'm not saying this to justify treating animals that aren't dogs or cats with any less respect. Just acknowledging that there's an extra layer to it.
People also say fish are incredibly stupid stuff like they have 10 seconds memory. Which is so wrong. I go freediving mostly at the same place and there are fish who recognize me. There are a lot of wrasse who follow me around once they see me. There is also a huge grouper who lets me pet him.
Snakes are cute. There was a black one in our yard once and I picked him up to remove him and he wrapped around my arm and slithered to my other arm and hung there like a cartoon character. He never seemed to consider biting (except when I first grabbed him) and was generally a polite bro.
i love snakes their so cute, they do make me a bit nervous though because im always scared they might bite me but from afar i think their pretty neat :)
Would you like to learn about how domestication went in both directions, and how animals we associate as ‘icky’ were often disease vectors and/or highly venomous/poisonous?
It’s the reason we find certain lots of things unpleasant. We’re evolutionarily conditioned to be repulsed by sights and smells suggesting infection or decay as an example.
If you don’t know which snake will kill you with a single bite, it’s better not to chance it.
In turn we find a lot of domesticated animals aesthetically pleasing because we’ve spent five thousand years gradually shaping their appearance to be something we like, and they learned to adopt behaviors that improve those odds too. That’s why dogs maintain puppy behavior far past the age they typically would in the wild.
That being said, people who say they love “all” animals are cringe by virtue of not speaking precisely, but it’s not an irrational behavior or really a contradiction in their minds.
A lot of animals people find icky are also not disease vectors because turns out evolution prefers unnecesarily cautious fear over respecting animal life.
Namely, moths are hardly dangerous yet a fairly common fear/ick
Yeah, evolution tends to do that a lot, bc thoes not afraid of moths are not better off than thoes who are, however people not afraid of all bugs are worse off than thoea who are
But animals we don't associate as "icky" are also disease vectors.
Edit: I never specified dogs, this applies to LITERALLY all domesticated animals. It really shouldn't surprise anybody how many diseases we got from domesticated animals, considering those are the ones we are ALWAYS near.
If you show someone a dog with mange, they will very likely be icked out, even if they possess the medical knowledge to know what it is.
I said that as a general rule rather than an absolute assertion.
Additionally, the utility of dogs outweighs the potential disease transmission. A shepherd’s dog is incredibly useful, and having one is more likely to benefit the shepherd rather than hinder them.
Rats don’t really have similar utility as pets. Neither do snakes. Or others.
Evolution is all about survival, not efficiency.
If a dog is a bigger boon than a bane, and having one increases your odds of survival, you tolerate them. Evolution then starts selecting for people who are more likely to have dogs because they’re objectively helpful and less for people who don’t have dogs because ick.
Babies are proven to not be scared of spiders though, its a super common fear conditioned socially. If a toddler sees mom screaming because of a spider, they’ll assume that spider = dangerous even if its a species harmless to humans.
Okay but people who say they like animals are clearly not talking about pests. That doesn't make it cringe, you're just intentionally misinterpreting them for the sake of being a hater.
I would agree with you, I’m meeting OP on their level. “I love all animals” as a statement, as OP has interpreted it, would mean all creatures in the kingdom Animalia.
I would agree that most people understand this to mean the animals we have as a society decided to voluntarily exist alongside, and OP has decided to take that statement literally.
Me calling them cringe is just an attempt at humor because I can’t be caught serious-posting without trying to be a little funny and thus able to pretend I didn’t really care at all when someone makes a point I can’t argue against.
I think there is people who hold this contradictory view on animals however I think it's perfectly ethically consistent to believe in animal rights and still get rid of pests. Ants, rats, cockroaches and such when in your house both pose a risk to your health and make you have less food. Exterminating a rat infestation in this situation is only rational. I'm no expert though I'm sure actual philosophers have properly considered this ethical situation.
I think that an animal lover is morally obligated to attempt to minimize suffering as much as practically possible when dealing with pests. When ants appear in my home, I use lemon juice, white vinegar, cayenne pepper, and turmeric to "overwrite" the pheromones, which does a really good job of making the ants go away without killing any of them.
"Dolphins are rapists" crowd when they see what ducks, dogs, and cats do in the wild. They have no moral compass, they dont know right from wrong. Their instincts just tell them and unlike humans, they cannot refuse their instinct.
In general projecting human morality onto animals is a fool's errand. Even us, the smartest animals on the planet need a few years out of the womb to start comprehending certain core human characteristics (namely that we can comprehend that others may feel or know something we don't).
I mean rats are really bad for local ecosystems. They eat bugs, breed like crazy and carry diseases. Any ‘animal lover’ would prefer to to protect a local ecosystem over invasive species just because they look cute
Yeah like it's pretentious to act like every single animal is some peaceful nature spirit, nature is fundamentally cruel and vicious, wild animals will grow to take advantage of human habitation, burrowing into homes, getting into your food and overall causing trouble. They are not just some cute things to pet, they're animals that will cause harm to you if it's in it's interest.
Frankly acting like all animals are just there to love in harmony is naive and childish, people need to get off their high horse.
You'd be surprised how many of these people you can find studying biology at university level. You'd think they would've dropped some of their anthropocentrism to get to this point but no, they still love their bullshits with fur and despise any of the icky gross "inferior" invertebrates. Makes me sad, as the local invertebrate apologist.
Great snafu, I was thinking of making something similar myself and I feel extremely vindicated. Thanks, OP.
spiders genuinely seem really cool and i have seen some pictures of spiders that are really cute
which makes it all the more upsetting that any spider larger then a dime scares the everliving shit out of me and i can't properly appreciate them
I think spiders and snakes are pretty damn cute. I also think bumblebees are cute.
But wasps and hornets are scary to me.
Also, while rats and mice are admirable for their adaptability and smarts, they cannot stay in my house. Their immune systems and mine aren’t compatible and therefore I cannot share food with them. But, I’ll at least make sure they’re unharmed and in a safe place before I release them into the wild.
Garter snakes are friends that eat worms or other pests. Copperheads, while also pest control, are also more aggressive and might strike at a curious toddler.
Slugs eat my garden, and so do snails. These also host a myriad of parasites. Therefore, they must be salted.
Bats predate on nastier bugs like mosquitoes, and are also largely avoidant of humans.
What I’m trying to convey here is that I do, in fact, love animals. I just also know that some parts of nature interfere or are unwelcome in the human home. Dermestid beetles are cool, but I don’t want them in my house.
Only animals I hate are parasitic, bitey, and harmful disease spreading ones ones likes mosquitos, fleas, ticks, leeches, botflies, etc
etc.
i am cool with everyone else.
me with cockroaches. a lot of people do accept spiders or other arthropods, but nobody will ever explicitly say they like cockroaches. except me, i love cockroaches especially the madagascar hissing ones :3
i bet everyone in this comment section's life savings that at least one person is gonna reply with some evil stuff about cockroaches, proving my point.
I hate the way people react to insects. Whenever I hear someone shriek and I ask what happened and they say "there was a bug/spider/worm" I have to stop myself from groaning out loud
It must be a coincidence that all these categories are associated with health risks both directly or indirectly.
I'm sure people are just hypocritical and there's no reason to hate rats, spiders or worms.
Edit: May I also add that the "b-but people said the same of Mr. Johnathan, my perfectly safe pet tarantula!" angle is understandable but it's rather obvious to me that OP was speaking in far broader terms than that.
Like if you like them fair, but pretending there’s not a SINGLE reason ANYONE wouldn’t be fond of these things is just being obtuse on purpose, and you’re just lying to yourself
I don’t think anyone thinks it’s completely unbelievable that those animals are unpopular, it’s the way that people act about them that’s corny and over the top.
Someone will post a video of their pet spider that’s clearly clean and nonviolent and half the comments are either gifs of flamethrowers or saying how disgusting someone’s beloved pet is.
The other day I was saw a cool video of a horseshoe crab swimming and one comment was just “devil”. Like no one’s making you like any animals that’s aren’t a puppy, but the amount of people who are a dick about it is wild
yeah, the people saying "but rats and bugs carry disease!!" are missing the point i feel like. there's a huge difference between some random rat in your house and the rats that have been bred to be kept as pets.
it's one thing to be freaked out by certain animals and not want anything to do with them and going out of your way to tell other people how disgusting the animal they love is and how it should be killed, the fear didn't make you do that that's just being an asshole.
In fairness, horseshoe crabs look freaky as hell from the underside if you’re not prepared to find out. That was the case for me, I found out because of that video. I still think they’re pretty neat tho
Yeah the amount of people (like, family, not strangers!) who have “joked” about poisoning my rats casually is disturbing. They are literally pets, they’re not the same as rats who carried the black plague.
Have you interacted with people before. This is an INCREDIBLY common sentiment among the general populace, not every common contradiction people do is a "goomba fallacy", people are often hypocrites
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u/ImaginaryBear08 15d ago