Many people feel that when they have pet, they’re receiving more than just a pet animal but more importantly, a friend, a companion. Now a question arises, should we treat pet animals as our family. And it results in an increasingly hot debate between two contending opinions people owned towards this issue. As far as I’m concerned, the answer is an absolute “YES”. Pets play such an important role in our life, and when a pet dies, it just feels like a family member passes away, with the same sad feeling. So why not regard the pet as family when you already have similar feelings.

　　Dogs are one of the best kinds of animals to bring into our family as family members. I’ve always held the opinion that dogs that I own are family. The reasons are their lovingness and ability to guard the household. Let’s take Tom, my grandma’s pet dog for example. My grandma loves it so much that Tom has almost become a son to her. She has dinner with Tom and goes everywhere with him. So I guess my grandma is as emotionally attached to the dog Tom as she would be to any of her real children. See, Tom is family. And like many other dogs, Tom is a great gatekeeper. He can detect if anyone shady is around the house or anyone is doing anything questionable around the house. So in a sense, he’s exercising his family responsibility just as any family member will.

　　Cats are also human’s favorite pets. They are meaningful to people especially in China. For one, they catch mice that destroy many of the wooden structures of a house and squander grain and other food; for the other, cats are a symbol of wealth in Chinese business world. So people not only feed cats well, but treat them as family as well. And it’s great to have a cat as family, because they’re so cute. They’re sleepy in the morning and seldom make a lot of noise during the day.

　　Human beings and pets are all animals. Just like wild animals can live harmoniously in the wild, so can people and pets live happily in a domestic setting. Pets bring companionship to people, keep people happy, raise people’s spirits, and shoulders many home duties, such as guarding the gate and catching vermin. If there’re more people like me who treat pets as family, there’ll be fewer homeless dogs on the streets of my city, and animal rights will be better protected. So here’s me saying, join me, pets are family.