Dogs are not children. Cope and seethe.
We do not need to embrace radical environmental socialism to care for animals or the environment.
I have been a dog owner for almost 21 years. My dogs have always been well loved and cared for. They have food, shelter, medical care and affection. But apart from a few jokes here and there, my dogs are not my children. I am not a "pet parent." I do not have "fur babies." I have animals that I own.
We live in an age where we have lost a Biblical understanding of anthropology. God made man in His image, male and female, telling us to have dominion over the earth, including all living things on the earth. But in post-Christian society, many people hate God's image in man. They hate the hierarchy of creation. Whether they want to admit it or not, they have embraced pagan earth worship over Biblical truth.
So simply stating the doctrine that man is the pinnacle of God's creation, made in His image, causes people to become angry. They become "offended" at the notion that their pets are not actually their children. Some of this is due to how we have structured modern society. As the birthrate falls and more people are "child free by choice," it has created a hole in many people's hearts. That unfulfilled desire for children has manifested itself in people calling themselves "pet parents."
Note that this does not mean that loving your pets is wrong. When the prophet Nathan told King David about a poor man with a beloved ewe lamb, only to have it stolen by a rich man and slaughtered for a feast, King David (who was a man after God's own heart) was enraged and was ready to have the rich man executed. (See 2 Samuel 12:1-6.) It is not a binary choice, where you cannot love your animals unless you see them as your own children.
None of this means I "hate" anyone. It is not "hateful" to point out something that for almost all of human history until the last five minutes has been universally accepted common sense, certainly not when backed up by God's special love for the men and women He created in His own image. No one is harassing "pet parents," so there is no need to tell anyone to "leave them alone." It is a sign of an intellectually degraded society where we cannot honestly argue without assuming the absolute worst, assuming those who disagree are motivated by "hate," and outright lying about arguments we dislike.
We also live in an age where we fabricate things to be offended about. Saying that "dog parents" are not actually parents in no way denigrates those who do not have children, especially those who are tragically unable to have children. Claiming otherwise is either hysterical paranoia or an outright lie.
Why does this matter? Because human life is sacred and human rights must be protected. That starts with recognizing God's image in man, making man infinitely more valuable than animals, and recognizing man's authority over creation. Lowering the value of man to animals has preceded genocide: Nazi Germany described Jews as rats, while Hutus described Tutsis as cockroaches before the Rwandan genocide. Blacks were described as monkeys or apes to justify race-based chattel slavery.
This is not complicated. We can have love and compassion for all of God's creatures while maintaining the Creation Order and God's image in man. It does not have to be a simplistic binary choice, and we do not need to embrace radical environmental socialism to care for animals or the environment. Broaden your horizons.