there is no such thing as a bad animal, just a bad owner?

Question

this is the title of a debate we are having today. We are against.. saying that there IS such a thing as a bad animal. Can you give us any helpful ideas?

Answer 1

The animal will only be as good as the owner who trains it. The same principle works for parents who bring their kids up in a certain way.

Answer 2

If there were no such thing as a bad animal, there could be no such thing as a good animal. In my experience the vast majority of dog and cat owners believe that there pets can hold moral positions, e.g. they approve when they are fed and disapprove if the owner stays out and neglect them. This is even more true of higher mammals such as elephants and monkeys, which sophisticated observations show to exhibit grief and compassion.

Animals are generally good, but I have known them to be bad. When I ws a child I had three guinea pigs, and the stronger two deliberately used the third as a shield against the cold entrance to their hutch. But usually animals behave badly when they have been led astray by bad owners.

In my view, to deny moral judgements about animals, as many philosophers and scientists did for most of the twentieth century, is to demean them by reducing them to the status of objects. As philosophy and animal psychology have advance in recent years such an instriumental position has become increasingly difficult to maintain.

Answer 3

Yes change your answer to

"there is no such thing as a bad pet, just a bad human owner."

Animals behave in a way that ensures their survival, only humans kill fro sport. we also have the ability to impart some of our other less sociable behaviour onto our pets and domesticated animals, when we inadvertly re-enforce unwanted behaviour by our own action.

Like playing with a great Dane puppy and encouraging it to jump up when it is small because we think it is cute will be very painful when the dog weighs as much as we do.

Dogs are pack animals, and if the owner is not up to the challenge of 'leading' the pack, the dog will take on the role of leader - its a natural reaction.

Cats retain their kitten playful state because they are awarded food, but if their playful nature is not rewarded - or even punished, they revert back into their feral instincts - and will shy away from contact.

Answer 4

The answer to this really depends on what you mean by 'bad'. Humans have a strong sense of right and wrong, we expect ourselves and others to be just and reasonable. The same is not true of other animals, at least not to the same high standard. Therefore the real question is, are you meaning bad by human standards? Or bad for the species? e.g.; an animal that eats its offspring is a evolutionary dead end, and is therefore bad, as in bad for the species. Or maybe you mean bad as defined by the animals sensibilities? Some animals, especially great apes, do exhibit the capacity for moral judgments, and can therefore be bad by ape society standards. Lions will sometimes shun a member of the pride even driving them out, is this based on moral judgment? It is however doubtful that an none human animal can fully comprehend human standards, but they probably have a basic idea, as most animals can learn to a greater or lesser degree.

Answer 5

I wouldn't want to categorize to just those limited names.
Let face it some people get animals without doing any research about their care and are overwhelmed but I don't think the owner who recognizes their limitations and gives the animal to someone who can provide the proper care as being bad. However, an owner who beats or neglects their pets are.
In regards to bad animals the only case I could think of is a rabid dog. This is not the dogs fault but it still becomes a bad animal

Answer 6

i agree there is no such thing as a bad animal just bad owners
like every living creature we all have a servial instint and if we feel scared or threatend then we attack or if a loved one is being attacked we go help in any way we can
well animals do just the same but they get called bad animals

Answer 7

I'm sorry the point you raised seems true since I can tell you something about pet keeping in Australia. First, during my morning walks, I saw some notices informing pet lovers to bring their dogs, cats, etc. to train and presumably behaved themselves. It's a wonder to me then, however, there are some places like them in my country but it seems to me it's just a fashion of showing off their pets. Second, wherever I passed some shops or small restaurants, I often saw some large, medium dogs sitting nobly in front of the said places. Of course, they're trained dogs and they're told to wait there by the owners. Again, I saw some official notices informing people to take good care of their own pets, especially dogs, if they barked loudly and disturbed other people residing around, they'd be heavily fined. Worse than that, if a dog bites anyone, the owner must be fined something around AUD 3000. Therefore, during my academic visits in Brisbane, Queensland from 1999-2003, I rarely heard dogs bark, I was safe from any dog bite during my long walks in the mornings and in the evenings. Thus, this simply means since there is a good owner, so there is a good animal or a good pet of any kind on earth. In contrast, we can assume that if it is a bad animal (e.g. dogs bite anyone without any reason), the owner is bad since he should have taken his dog to a training school and lives peacefully with his neighbors or other families' children.

Answer 8

Yes there are bad owners and bad animals. Like my brother and his dog Josh (I don't really like Josh Groban so much). Josh is a ridgeback and he is a very beautiful dog and he's taken care of really well. He gets washed almost two times a week, he eats like a king and he gets lots of love and attention.

But that f....... dog piss me off when he runs into the house. When I want to put it out of the house it usually refuses and then I have to use some force. This dog has a mind of its own and it is very stubborn. It has the habit of biting stuff and ripping it apart. I watched it the other day when it was busy dismantling a 2l plastic bottle!

If you want to carry it or pull it or push it, the dog will try to bite you. It hates cigarettes and the dog barks when someone is smoking.

I am gonna get myself a 500 thousand volt taser for that dog.

Answer 9

I would have to disagree with you. There are bad animals just by the nature of the animal, but what is considered bad. If a tiger that you raised as a pet suddenly one day decides to eat a human, is it bad. No it is its nature. If you tease a dog and it bites you, again, not a bad dog, just it nature. I would not get in a cage with a bear nor have one as a pet, because I respect it. Yet there are people who try to make pets of them still today.

Answer 10

Well I am a great pet owner but I bought a bird a few monthes ago and the girl is a lil whacko. I have read every book on the subject, tried everything I could but she still trys to attack me. Now in some of the books it says that female birds are just that way because they gaurd their nesting area. So you decide and I will keep trying to work on her. The other three birds I have are sweet and great and amazing. But they are all males.

Answer 11

Just an example or two: Dobermans have a bad reputation, right? I knew a young male named Tahoe, who had been loved and nurtured so well, he was like a big, overgrown lab. He was so excited to have visitors in his home and would be a sweet nuisance pulling out each and every toy in his vast collection and nudging, nudging, nudging your leg, asking you repeatedly, "Wanna play, huh, huh, huh?" Then while housesitting for my brother, I met a neglected Rotty tied unmercifully with a heavy chain, crude shelter, and an empty water bowl over the fence. I began to feed this big fellow, and even though he was neglected, I reached right over the fence within days to rub him and pet him. We both recognized a friend when we saw one. All but a precious few animals can be rehabilated. Love is a wonderful THANG! Just don't ask me to do counseling with a minature doberman; I knew one named Skippy who was psychotic!!