PET
CARE : PET
SUPPLY
A
pet or companion animal is an animal kept for companionship and enjoyment, as
opposed to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals,
which are kept for economic reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their
loyal or playful characteristics, for their attractive appearance, or for their
song. Pets also generally seem to provide their owners with non-trivial health
benefits; keeping pets has been shown to help relieve stress. There is now a
medically-approved class of "therapy animals," mostly dogs, who are
brought to visit confined humans. Walking a dog can provide both the owner and
the dog with exercise, fresh air, and social interaction.
While in theory any animal might be a pet, in practice only a small number of
species of mammals (especially dogs and cats) and other small animals, such
as birds, fish, or lizards, are practical. One reason for this is that large
animals are not able to fit inside small dwellings.In
general, a pet must either be small enough (or easily controlled) for his or
her undesirable behavioral tendencies to be negligible, or the animal must be
actually domesticable. Examples of the former are such animals as fish (including
carnivorous ones such as piranha), chickens, invertebrates or small mammals.
A
few animals are sufficiently capable of adapting to human interaction to be
considered domesticable. Dogs ("man's best friend") are considered
to be a classic example of domesticated animals normally suited to being pets.
Domestic dogs are quite similar to wolves, but their physical form and behavior
are characteristically different, more than mere differences in size, coat,
or coloring. Behaviorally speaking, characteristic changes in dogs due to domestication
include a prolonged infancy, increased playfulness, and increased barking. Wolves
are far less playful and vocal.(1)
source
(1) wikipedia