suzemagoo

Gives this post a standing ovation for the bullseye it is. Had the OP understood it as a mental illness, perhaps the thread title and original post would have been different.

Perhaps your title needs better editing too. Suggesting something is a "breeding ground" places it squarely in the adding-to-the-problem category. You did also list the ways it attempts to help rather that hurt but that semantically works about as well as that lame old joke about eating pasta and anti pasta together…

It could be simply a matter of preferring animals to people. My spouse and I very much prefer our pets to other people. We both have far more authenticity and integrity than most people we meet. As a sad commentary on how duplicitous and dysfunctional most people are these days, our pets also have more authenticity and…