Real Animal-Lovers Don't Own Animals, Don't Raise Animals, Don't Keep Animals.

this is a really brief comment by video
someone in my chat just commented in response to my 30 minute lecture about Buddhism in connection with veganism future of ecology etc etc said this makes it sound like you're an animal lover even though you're not okay what does it mean to be an animal lover okay if you love your children if you love a child a child you adopt up with no blood relation you you cannot want that child to remain a child forever it can't be that your love is based on keeping them in a situation of perpetual dependency uh I think in some cases it is I think some parents do feel that way I think on an emotional level some parents want the baby to always be a baby or they have so much fun taking care of a six-year-old they want it to always be a six-year-old but real love for a child has to ultimately aim at hoping that child achieve independence you have to want that child to be independent and you know we don't use the word love for it so often in English but if you just have a friend if you just have a colleague at work ultimately your love for them must also be based on wanting them to lead an independent life it can't be oh I have so much respect for this work colleague or this friend I have as two adults and you know you want them to be in your constant care now if you have a friend whether it's your wife or your daughter or your mother your grandmother and sometimes they're sick and you have to take care of them for us that's a wonderful thing that in that situation of dependency you care for them but the concept of being an animal lover in as much as it rests on the presumption of keeping a domesticated animal in a state of perpetual dependency I think is sick and wrong and immoral I think it has to be based on a respect for a love for wild animals living their own lives and their own terms so you know if I want the best for an animal if in some sense i love an animal why is that incompatible with my wanting them to have an independent life why would it be based on my continually nurturing them in the sense of keeping them in a sickbed right even if I love my own grandfather it can't be that I love my grandfather therefore I want him to be in a sick bed all the time with me nutriyum it must be that I want him to have some kind of Independence see on whether it's your child or an older relative or work colleague is the same age I do think that wanting the best for someone loving someone ultimately has to have on the horizon as the imagined outcome that you're supporting some kind of Independence some kind of self-determination for that person and on the contrary if you hate someone if you fear someone if you can't trust someone if they're a danger to society if you want to see them put in Chains kept in a prison kept behind bars kept in a state of dependency precisely to deprive them of that independence because they're a threat because they're a danger there a danger you have you that's obviously not love right I think there is a sense in which we do care for dangerous criminals I think that's really worth philosophizing about I do but domesticating an animal whether you're keeping it in a kennel in a zoo in a cage in an actual prison or you're keeping it in your living room and depriving it of its testicles depriving of its normal sex life of its normal instincts of its neural behavior giving it a life in which it never even learns to feed itself it never learns to forage for food in the woods giving it a life where it can never have independence where you broken its will and so on to me that's not love I don't think you can legitimately claim to be an animal lover if your idea of caring for an animal is turning it into a toy I also do not think you can really claim to love a human being if your idea of love for that person is to turn them into a toy probably I think there are probably some sick horror movies about that a spectator I thought I would see it a lot to think about but I mean I think we can all relate to that too you know whether love between boyfriend and girlfriend or between parent and child sometimes love can be too controlling sometimes love people want to turn someone into their pet in some sense you know what I mean I think it's a problem I think these are dark tendencies that exist in human nature not just in relation animals not just relation to investigated pets am I an animal lover if I exercise my love and respect for animals by wanting them to live independent lives out in the wild and not in my living room I want them to live in the forest not in my living room when you look into the eyes of a cow a cow has bigger eyes than a human being and has a bigger brain than human being it can suffer etc doesn't mean I like the way cows smell don't kid yourself these animals smell the way they do for a reason they have their own pheromones they have their own society they have their own reason for looking the way they do acting the way they do smelling the way they do cats have claws for a reason and it's not for your entertainment okay we literally live in a dog-eat-dog world I recently had a very brief appearance on my channel from sniper wolf who's a well-known YouTube personality she had two pet dogs and one of them was killed was eaten by a wild dog so it's a domesticated dog was torn apart I'm sure I forget the name of the the breed of dog was one of the right not a wolf but another type of wild canine devoured her her pet dog in her backyard you know came over the fence it's literally a dog-eat-dog world and I know it's hard to look at the kind of comfort you may provide an animal and to see that as something that's depriving them of the life of the life of the mind for them the life of their instincts the life that they really yearn to live which is a life that includes danger the same way that human beings yearn for danger human beings don't want to live in a totally safe prison cell either this is my response to the question someone saying you know yeah it sounds like your animal abuja I am an animal lover because I respect animals I prefer use words like respect rather than love but what I want for them is for them to have independence is for them to have lives of dignity not to have lives of dependency