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Pets are retarded animals

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Z the laidback Virus:
First,I've got nothing against pets but really,they are stupid compared to their wild relatives. There are good reasons for this though.

First,domesticated animals(that's selectively bred by humans to fulfill a certain role for mankind) have been bred for just about anything imaginable:
-Meat (most species)
-Wool and/or skins (sheep,goats,cows,rabbits,chinchillas,etc.)
-Eggs (poultry)
-Milk (Cows,horses,reindeer,goats,etc.)
-certain skills (hunting,guarding,beast-of-burden) (dogs,cats to a certain extent,horses,donkeys,dromedaries,camels,llamas,you know the deal)
-Company (dogs,cats,canaries,goldfish,guinea pigs,etc.)
-Or even for medical or genetical research (mice,rats...even fruit flies)
Now as you see,none have been bred for intelligence. In fact,by selecting for certain features humans have mostly selected against the intelligence of these animals. You might think that for example a sheepdog might be a very intelligent race of dogs because they can herd sheep in a very sophisticated way. However,this is just about the only thing they are really good in and the herding behaviour has for generations been selected for and has become an example of fixed behaviour. Sheepdogs are neurotic herders. If they can't herd sheep they'll trie to herd geese,children or lawnmowers. Its not a sign of intelligence.

Also, these creatures have for many generations not really needed any intelligence they might naturally have had. Food was provided by humans, they were given shelter for bad weather and they were usually protected against predators,at least to a certain extent. This doesn't exactly favor inventivity and the lack of any pressure or stress in these areas of their behaviour ment they lost the intelligence to deal with such situations. What remains are only deeply ingrained instincts. For this reason,domesticated animals are rarely able to survive in the wild if there are plenty of predators in the area or if they can't join a group of wild relatives,wich might increase their chances as the presence of alert groupmates might benefit them.

Therefore it's no surprise pets are quite retarded compared to their wild relatives,intelligence just wasn't needed for humans. If our ancestors would have found a benefit for an animal to be intelligent I'm sure they would have bred an animal to high intelligence. If we can breed cows with utters almost as big as their body and bulldogs with heads so big they can't be born naturally,I'm sure we could also have bred a genious dog.

Don Rizzle:
what like a dog which could guilde a blind human around in the wild

just picking but your right most domesticated animals have everything given to them so they lose their natural instincts, although many of them still continue to hunt cats do this and we aid them by giving them stuff to jump at l;ike a moving piece of string.

some people like to test the abilities of animals intelligence to get food for example with squirrel run making a complicated obstical course and leaving food as the reward for completing it.

how do u visualise an inteligent animal ,what it could do and who would want/need it?

what do they need a great deal of intelligence for? animals ahve learnt to survive and then past on the wisdon to thier ofspring can't imagion ever thinking about trying to teach a rabbit make sense of a balence sheet or explain game theory to me.

Rain:
lol i know what u mean but its funny that u use the word "retarded" - they are just domesticated  - they have lost all ability to survive without humanity. Removal of such abilities which probably began when dogs and cats would pick at the bones thrown away by the primitive men.  Such removal has ensured loyalty which humans find reassuring since its not a trait we tend to posse ourselves.

Some pets listed though lack any chance for intelligence - i dont think we can expect much more out of goldfish other then company

7even:
they are adapted. it's evolution. if youre a hater you can also call it mutation  8).

Z the laidback Virus:
Sure,they've evolved to fit into the human world in the best way possible. Intelligence is actually selected against in these environments and it's a biological law that characters that are not selected for tend to degenerate and dissappear. I don't think intelligence can COMPLETELY dissappear but it can degenerate much.

The dog guiding the blind man is actually an interesting example,I hadn't thought of it but it could be an example of a creature being bred for intelligence or at least, a form of symbiosis with humans. That is,a relationship between members of different species where both parties benefit from the other. The blind man/woman can walk through his world safely thanks to the dog,and the dog finds shelter and food by being housed and fed by the blind person.

The question about the benefits for humans of an intelligent animal. Well, I assume such animals could have some sort of benefit,perhaps they could be used for certain actions that involve intelligence and wich we humans could not do so easily though I can't tell of any such job from the top of my head.Perhaps animals are capable to do much more then we realise.

As for the squirrels,they don't count because they're wild animals. They're surely inventive but I bet they wouldn't have been that bright had they been domesticated. It seems to be a general rule that domesticated animals have 30% smaller brains then their wild relatives. Imagine what that means for goldfish..Goldfish would be pretty hard to learn anything,even if they had been smart because their memory doesn't seem to span longer then 30 seconds.

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