Is it ethical for the hosts to raise their pet at home?

Nowadays, people are more caring about their pets dogs, and they always treat them like their family members. In the last blog, I have talked about whether it is ethical to let the pets to be euthanized. Also, people always try their best to give pets good treatment, keep them from being harmed, and let them show their nature. Yesterday, I video chatted with my mom and she showed me my border collie was walking on the balcony. There is a question that has arises in my head: pet dogs often need a lot of exercise to exercise themselves, because dogs were originally used for sheep herding. Therefore, there is a debate over whether it is ethical for the hosts to only raise their pet at home but not raise them in the grassland. 

First, many people think it is ethical to raise their pets at home. One of the reason is that the adaption of dogs are good, and they are easy to get used to live in an apartment. There is an article from the website named “petfinder”, and it said that dogs are easy to adapt to the apartment lifestyle if you stick to a routine. And I totally agree with this. I have the experience of raising border collies. Although my house is not very big, they can still walk around in a small space. What’s more, there are many solutions to solve the problem of the small apartment. Although the apartment is small, you can still bring your pet dogs out for a walk every day to let them exercise. What’s more, there are many kinds of machines which are used to let pets run. And this machine can allow animals to have enough exercise, and can also set the amount of daily exercise according to the condition of their dogs. Therefore, it is ethical for pets living in a small apartment if the hosts treat them well, just like another blog said that, “Dogs are among the most adaptable of species, and that’s likely one of the reasons why they’ve been our coworkers and companions for so many generations. ”

In the other hand, there is also many people think that it is unethical to raise their pet dogs inside a small space. Most of them stated that dogs are born to live in a larger space. If they are forced to be housed in a small place, they will not be able to stretch. As a result, they may not be healthy physically and mentally. Also, people cannot prevent or intentionally change dog’s lifestyle. We can not assume they enjoy a small space because they can not express their anger in human language. In other words, we cannot feel the dog’s feeling and it is better for them to live in a big space because running is one of their characteristic.