Search Results: he thinks he has me on a leash

Be it using horses for carriages, or using cows for farming purposes, or using animals as pets? (If you want you can have different answers for each of those.)

I thought of this question as I was on the bus today. I was sitting next to an oldish woman (maybe in her 60s or 70s), and as she got up, I noticed there was a small (terrier?) dog under her chair. It came out from under the chair (on a leash) and I saw that it had one of those back shirt things that seeing-eye dogs have to designate it as a seeing-eye dog, only this one just said it was a help dog or something. The woman wasn't blind though.

Anyway, what I noticed was that the dog didn't seem particularly happy. And that made me realize that maybe a life completely designated to service isn't all that great of a life (at least for most people/animals). And it made me wonder if it's really right to use dogs for services like that. Or animals in general for services, for that matter. Guide dogs are already chosen to be guide dogs before they're born, and begin training to become guide dogs right when they're big/strong to do so, which is pretty young. And they obviously have no choice in the matter.

Likewise, generation after generation of farm animals are used for their services (e.g. cows' milk, chickens' eggs), and after a long life of this, they're killed for their meat. Is this really humane?

One of my teachers has told me on several occasions that she doesn't believe in the domestication of dogs. Her argument was that they were made to run wild and free and it's not right for them to be cramped up in houses. When I noted that that's why people have to take them for walks and stuff, she said that most people still don't give them enough fresh air and exercise. While I still don't believe that people shouldn't have dogs as pets, I do wonder what you guys think about all this.

In short:

1) I used to think that services like using horses for carriages and using dogs to guide the blind were okay, but now I'm a bit undecided because it does seem a tiny bit unfair to the animals

2) I don't believe farming animals is okay. I would change my mind if somehow we were to change the way we farm animals to make it more humane - i.e., better living quarters, healthier food for them, etc.. Unfortunately, I've completely succumbed to the temptation of having a more convenient lifestyle in which it's more like "out of sight, out of mind", so I'm not a vegetarian and don't make an effort to search for things like organic milk. I was even at the store with my dad the other day and thought about getting organic milk (cause it's healthier for us) but it was too expensive and my dad gave a funny face at it haha.

3) I think it's okay to domesticate dogs (and pets in general). Most people treat them well and have them live happy lives.