To quote Marion: "happy animals, living together in peace" should be our goal. I would like to know just what a 'happy animal' is when they are kept confined to our homes, perhaps walked once or twice a day, waiting at the door for our return when we've been away tending to our own happiness and needs.
Does a dog truly love being in our care rather than running through the fields and streams and interacting with it's own kind?
Do horses love spending day after day in barns and riding circles and the same little pastures?
I could go on, but you get my meaning, I'm sure. Whether or not we love them, hug them, pet them, give them cookies, these creatures are still not free and able to 'love' their own species and environments.
Until a captive animal can tell us verbally that they are truly happy in our care and do not wish to return to their own habitat, I don't believe we are doing right by them, no matter how much we love them. I have admonished people who have dogs untethered in the back of a pick up truck or in a sweltering car, and inevitably their response is: "oh, he loves riding there".
I'm sure all of us on this board would agree that there is no possibility that these dogs are happy - but their 'owners' honestly believe they are. Just as we see through this poor excuse, we must also see through our own selfish but well-meaning mind-set of capturing and tethering any animal to our lives.