Dogs are not people, does anyone else find it weird how some seem to equate the two?

[Buzz Clik]

125. This is a fight --war -- that could only occur on a liberal bulletin board.

I am a cat person, not dog, but it's the same argument.

I will take reasonable measures to keep my cat free of ticks and fleas, current on his shots, and repair him when he's broken. However, the monetary scale at which I keep my cat in good health is way different that the scale I use for my kids. I will not go into debt or rack up a big bill to repair my cat's failing kidneys. I buy him prescription, low protein cat food at about double the price of normal cat food. That's it and no more. He's 19 and a half years old, and I will make sure his last years are comfortable.

People on this board called me all kinds of names (similar to those I see being tossed about up thread) for allowing my cat to go out at night when I knew he was being chased by coyotes every night. He's a cat, not a child. He knows how to survive, and he spent the first three years of his life dodging coyotes. He lived because he's a cat.

His body weight is half what it used to be due to his illness. When he becomes too weak to get around and take care of himself, I will put him down. I will mourn his departure, but as a pet, not as a child.

If you value your pet as you would a human, it's your call. I don't see it, but there you go.