Do you consider your pet a 'member of the family'? (dog, baby)
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Pets should be considered family members and treated as such. Most pets are reliant on what you do for them and are not self sufficient. They need to be fed, taken to vets, exercised, paid attention to, etc. You are not a pet owner if you think otherwise.
Please, any reference to ANY comparison of a pet to a child is ludicrous. I love my pets, but that love is ENTIRELY different than my love for my children. I will protect my pets the best I can. But at the end of the day there is no choice between your child and a pet - none.
I haven't read the rest of the thread but I personally don't feel that your opinion about YOUR pet and YOUR child qualifies you to speak for others feelings on it. Why does one love HAVE to be bigger than another? Why does a pet have to be - for example: "just a dog?"
If someone loves their pet like their child, then that's one lucky pet! You may not feel that way about your dog, cat...but whatever, that's your thing.
Love is love, and if someone has enough to give, then that's a good thing...it's not something you MEASURE on a scale. There are a lot more important things to worry about than how much someone is "allowed" to love their pet.
I haven't read the rest of the thread but I personally don't feel that your opinion about YOUR pet and YOUR child qualifies you to speak for others feelings on it. Why does one love HAVE to be bigger than another? Why does a pet have to be - for example: "just a dog?"
If someone loves their pet like their child, then that's one lucky pet! You may not feel that way about your dog, cat...but whatever, that's your thing.
Love is love, and if someone has enough to give, then that's a good thing...it's not something you MEASURE on a scale. There are a lot more important things to worry about than how much someone is "allowed" to love their pet.
Let me expand and clarify. My comments about a pet are in conjunction with the fact that I have children too (and grandchildren).
If I had no children but only pets, then they are in fact my children. But once I have both, there is a difference. In an absolutely extreme example - you wake up to a fire in your house and you have but a minute to get out. Who are you going to grab? If anyone told me they'd grab their pet before their children I'd say they are not human. Children come first, period.
I never alluded to a pet being "just something". You can love them all equally, but even then I don't really believe that. I can't as it just doesn't make sense. I have full compassion for living beings, and if I take the responsibility to have a pet it's sort of a parallel to the responsibility towards your children. But life doesn't present it self being all equal.
Another example. You have a dog you love dearly. What if the dog has an issue with one of your children because he/she constantly abuses the dog. The dog tries, but lashes out and bites your child. You may take that dog to training etc. and try everything you can to rectify the situation before making an instant decision to quit on the dog. Yet still the dog again goes after your child a year later. If your child is only 2-3 or so, that means many years of this issue. So, you'd risk you child's well-being with a dog that bites and could cause harm to your child? Again, I think there's a difference.
The OP's question was is a pet a member of the family. I say yes to my 3 birds. But them as family is not the same as my children or grandchildren. Different definitions based on my feelings above.
Since the kids and grandkids don't live close by and we are empty nesters, we enjoy Caesar the peke very much,
he gets a lot of attention from both of us.
Yes, certainly a member of my family, but not equal in footing to my children. My children might disagree I hate the term "furbabies"- my dog is my beloved pet, and we care for her and include her in as many activities as we can (walks, vacations, weekend outings) and we have never kenneled her (because her temperament is such that I think it would not go well at all and we don't want to do that to her). Some of our family choices are made while thinking of her needs and preferences (e.g., whether to take this trip or that trip, how long to stay out at events that can't include her). But hands down, she is not at the same level in my heart and mind as my human children. We paid a hefty pet deposit, chose a less desirable rental and pay extra rent just for the privilege of being able to care of her.
When I had a dog and no children, he (the dog we had then) "was" my child (although I still never called her a "furbaby," she was a dog). I wouldn't say my current pet gets less love or care, and certainly she gets plenty from my three kids, but she isn't as important to me as the dog before kids was. She definitely gets less attention from me than my previous dog, but my kids more than make up for my lack of attention
I haven't read the rest of the thread but I personally don't feel that your opinion about YOUR pet and YOUR child qualifies you to speak for others feelings on it. Why does one love HAVE to be bigger than another? Why does a pet have to be - for example: "just a dog?"
If someone loves their pet like their child, then that's one lucky pet! You may not feel that way about your dog, cat...but whatever, that's your thing.
Love is love, and if someone has enough to give, then that's a good thing...it's not something you MEASURE on a scale. There are a lot more important things to worry about than how much someone is "allowed" to love their pet.
Yes, certainly a member of my family, but not equal in footing to my children. My children might disagree I hate the term "furbabies"- my dog is my beloved pet, and we care for her and include her in as many activities as we can (walks, vacations, weekend outings) and we have never kenneled her (because her temperament is such that I think it would not go well at all and we don't want to do that to her). Some of our family choices are made while thinking of her needs and preferences (e.g., whether to take this trip or that trip, how long to stay out at events that can't include her). But hands down, she is not at the same level in my heart and mind as my human children. We paid a hefty pet deposit, chose a less desirable rental and pay extra rent just for the privilege of being able to care of her.
When I had a dog and no children, he (the dog we had then) "was" my child (although I still never called her a "furbaby," she was a dog). I wouldn't say my current pet gets less love or care, and certainly she gets plenty from my three kids, but she isn't as important to me as the dog before kids was. She definitely gets less attention from me than my previous dog, but my kids more than make up for my lack of attention
Yes, the cat and dog are family members, but they're not equal to my children. They are well taken care of and spoiled, and I worry about them if we go on vacation without them or even if we are away from home for a half day. But loving a pet is not like loving a child. Anyone with children knows that.
I think a lot of people are getting caught up in semantics. Is your pet woven into the daily fabric of your family life, treated lovingly, afforded basic comforts and provided with proper healthcare, that is pretty much an affirmative to the question.
I'm a single woman and I don't really think of them as family, though I joke about them being my kids. The relationship I have with my dogs is entirely different than traditional family relationships. You raise a child to be an independent person (at least if you're doing it right). You respect and love a parent based on how they treated you when you were young. Your pets aren't like either of those relationships. They are dependent throughout their lives. They will never be your equal. You are the one who decides if they live or die, essentially.
My dogs sleep in my bed. Their needs are the first priority in terms of all of my disposable income (and sometimes more) before it gets spent on me. I take classes and compete with them for fun - theirs and mine. They have opened up social avenues to me that I would not have accessed on my own. When I am stressed, they are happy to help calm me down. When I am sick, they are right next to me, providing comfort. They see our home as a place to protect, and I sleep easier at night knowing they are beside me because of that.
Years ago, I even had a cat that proved time and time again that he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect me. I was never in danger, but he didn't know that. Anyone who snuck up on me when I was sleeping was liable to get a Siamese cat flying at them in a hissing, shrieking rage; at all other times, he was a very pleasant and social cat. Go figure.
We have symbiotic relationships with our pets. That's not really how you would define "family," I don't think. And with dogs, at least, we have evolved together - evidence suggests our last big "brain" evolution was spurred, at least in part, by the domestication of dogs. We are MEANT to be together. In many ways, I view my dogs as extensions of myself. They are necessary for my sense of wellbeing. When I don't have a dog, I feel like I'm missing a limb.
So to say that they're "part of the family" is, in a way, overly simplistic to me.
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I hate the term "furbabies"- my dog is my beloved pet, and we care for her and include her in as many activities as we can (walks, vacations, weekend outings) and we have never kenneled her (because her temperament is such that I think it would not go well at all and we don't want to do that to her). Some of our family choices are made while thinking of her needs and preferences (e.g., whether to take this trip or that trip, how long to stay out at events that can't include her). But hands down, she is not at the same level in my heart and mind as my human children. We paid a hefty pet deposit, chose a less desirable rental and pay extra rent just for the privilege of being able to care of her. 
