kaijutegu:

justnoodlefishthings:

@fishyfishykitty

My apologies, I thought you were replying to the picture in general, not someone else’s comment

But. I’m sorry. You’re wrong.

I love Nubby. I love my fish. But I understand that ultimately, they are physically incapable of loving me back. Reptiles and fish do not secrete oxytocin, the hormone responsible for emotional attachment, social bonds, and love. They for sure can have preferences for humans, or feel comfortable around them, but to say they can return the love is false. They’re not dogs or cats. 

I would die for Nubby in an instant but I know he doesn’t “love me” like my cat or dogs do. Attributing mammalian traits to reptiles is erroneous.

Seriously attributing human emotions to animals that physically cannot experience them in a way we’re familiar with is a terrible idea- especially if it ever involves care practices. Now, this doesn’t mean that animal don’t have emotions- but what it does mean is that we don’t understand them entirely. The way a snake or lizard or fish thinks and feels is very alien to us- they don’t have the same social structures we do, and they don’t have that drive to please us that a dog would. Just assuming that animals love us the way we love them is inaccurate at best and ends in the animal’s death at worst. 

I love my fish, and they’re great, but they don’t love me. They get excited when they see me because I have food sometimes, but that’s it. There’s no evolutionary reason for them to have the capability for anything further.