The biggest tragedy of pet ownership is that they just don’t live long enough. Thankfully scientists are working on that, with a new cancer vaccine for dogs that almost doubles their survival rates in the face of certain types of the disease.
Maybe this is being too cold-hearted, but we tend to choose pets that live a fraction of a human’s life. There are many animals which could make good pets except they live as long as humans (if not a lot longer).
I think what this article was something like,
The biggest tragedy of pet ownership is that sometimes those pets die far too soon due to illness.
That has nothing to do with a genetic bond with humans.
From your linked article:
More likely, domestication happened slowly, in fits and starts. “This symbiotic or commensal relationship,” says Robert Quinlan, professor of anthropology at Washington State University, “probably initially happened accidentally."
Dogs and humans have a symbiotic bond, as the OP from your original reply said. We did not bond our genes with them, like that episode of Fullmetal Alchemist (I hope).
Sorry to be a “acktually”-type pedant about this, but terminology is important when discussing genetics, otherwise people get confused and end up like the ones that think we can’t be genetically related to chimps because they exist at the same time as we do.
I feel like messing with animals’ lifespans is playing God too much. Then again, we made the Chihuahua, and if anything was an affront to God it’d be that.
Maybe this is being too cold-hearted, but we tend to choose pets that live a fraction of a human’s life. There are many animals which could make good pets except they live as long as humans (if not a lot longer).
I think what this article was something like,
I don’t know that many of them can have the symbiotic relationship we have with dogs.
We literally have a genetic bond with dogs. Nothing on earth is quite like it.
I think your family tree looks a little bit different than mine! Lol
Um, we don’t have a “genetic bond” with dogs unless you’re talking about LUCA…or a dog has learned how to comment on Lemmy…
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/dogs-have-co-evolved-with-humans-like-no-other-species
a dog is literally a wolf bread to be a perfect human companion.
That has nothing to do with a genetic bond with humans.
From your linked article:
Dogs and humans have a symbiotic bond, as the OP from your original reply said. We did not bond our genes with them, like that episode of Fullmetal Alchemist (I hope).
Sorry to be a “acktually”-type pedant about this, but terminology is important when discussing genetics, otherwise people get confused and end up like the ones that think we can’t be genetically related to chimps because they exist at the same time as we do.
Parrots.
I have parrots and I love them more than life itself but it’s not quite the same relationship that I have with my dog. Dogs are truly special.
I cannot with parrots.
Maybe with corvids? But their love is conditional, unlike a dog or cat.
I feel like messing with animals’ lifespans is playing God too much. Then again, we made the Chihuahua, and if anything was an affront to God it’d be that.