Pet

A pet is typically a domesticated animal, but not always Some pets are wild and become somewhat domesticated over a period of time. Such as a wild wolf cub or a baby squirrel. Pets live with and or among people; however, most pets are for companionship and or emotional support. Therefore pets in general do not work . There is exceptions to that rule however, handicap assisted animals, usually dogs, do work. By helping make daily chores and such easier for their owners. For a blind person, there dog may be trained to retrieve items that their owners ask them to get for them. They assist their owners when they have to go outside of their homes, for shopping, appts., and etcetera. By guilding them on their walks to and from home, these working canines are also their owners pets. Just to note, pets are not considered food, nor are they consumed. . In most cases, a person gets a pet to feel companionship, needed, or to not feel alone A lot of dogs and cats, that are found homeless on the streets are placed in shelters, where they receive medical care, including up to date immunizations, sterilization, and dental treatments if needed. Those animals are assessed and if determined they would be good companions are placed up for public adoption. The purpose of adoption is to find these often terribly abused animals their forever homes, with loving and caring people.Once adopted, the animal moves out of the shelter into their new homes and hopefully that's where they remain until they pass away from old age, and in some cases from diseases they may develope. Sadly there's usually so many animals in public and private shelters that if an animal doesn't get adopted, it's too old or sick, or it's too aggressive now, than sadly many are euthanized or "put to sleep" as it's commonly referred to. Shelters typically run on donations or government funding, so they try to rotate out as many animals as possible to foster homes until said animal gets adopted. These foster homes are people who willingly take in several animals at any given time to prevent them from being put to sleep. These foster parents are investigated before hand and their homes are inspected regularly for enough space for the animals, the residents is clean and steralized regularly, the animals are overall in healthy condition and whether the parents can afford to support these animals for any amount of time or till they are adopted. Shelters typically take in cat, dogs, kittens, puppies , rabbits, ferrets, and some reptiles, like turtles. Some shelters only take specific animals in need like a rabbit shelter, or a tortoise shelter. Where those animals get specialized care. Many people have seen abused or neglected animals, what they may not know is they can report those animals to the police or animal control and people will come out to investigate and rescue said animals if they need any help. Meanwhile, their owners will be prosecuted for their part in abusing or neglecting said animal or animals. No animal deserves to suffer. There's no bad pets, just bad owners.

Dogs, cats, fish, rodents, lagomorphs, ferrets, birds, certain reptiles and amphibians, and a wide variety of arthropods such as tarantulas and hermit crabs are the most common pets in North America. Horses, elephants, oxen, and donkeys are usually made to work, so they are not usually called pets. Some dogs also do work for people, and it was once common for some birds (like falcons and carrier pigeons) to work for humans.

Rodents are very popular pets. The most common are guinea pigs, hamsters (especially Syrian and dwarf hamsters), mice and rats. Rabbits are also very popular pets.

Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that the pet care market across the world was worth $320 billion in 2024 and growing rapidly.^[1]

Common Pets

Image	Name
	Dog (member of Canines)
	Cat (member of Felines)
	Goldfish (member of Fishes)
	Mouse (member of Rodents)
	Rabbit (member of Lagomorphs)
	Hamster (member of Rodents)
	Guinea pig (member of Rodents)
	Parrot (member of Birds)

Related pages

• Domestication