You’re arguing past the point. Deprivation is violence. That’s just the definition, and there’s nothing to argue about there.

I’m not suggesting you to run through the aisles of your local PetCo and free all the little creatures. I’m pointing out that we, as a civilization, are able to compartmentalize and justify almost anything if we accept it as normal. Consider the entire concept of “bred for domestication” and think about the generations of animals that have lived and died in small boxes so that we could have the prettiest and most docile birds. Does that really mitigate the suffering of caged finches?

On the scale of human atrocities, that’s so close to zero that it does not merit inclusion. But it’s not quite zero, and it reveals our intimate relationship with suffering as a commodity. There’s nothing wrong with having pets, just like there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the modern world and all of its conveniences. We’re all just individual snowflakes in the avalanche of human history, and in our brief lives we try to do the best we can with the limited control we get.