Meow

offer nothing in return

Warmth, company, fun...? Also, the experience of being responsible for and caring for another being can be very valuable.

Comment above is crazy but also, animals are not toys. It's pretty crazy to want to own animals and make them live with you. Fortunately (idk) some animals co-evolved with us and became dependant of human farming/breeding/ownership
- Having pets live with you is not (necessarily) the same as treating them like toys, though, is it?
  
  No, of course
Not to me, sorry. What benefit could i have from "caring for another being"? Me, personally? The other being, yes, maybe. But me? I could never care ADEQUATELY for any animal. they don't belong in my company/house. Just because we domesticated the fuck outta them doesn't make it better. And i also couldn't neuter them or feed them this disgusting shit we call pet-food. And also I don't want to take out the shit of others :-)
- Your family and friends must adore you.
  
  They actually do. Not that this is either anything of your concern nor the point. And guess what, friends are people i care about that I CHOSE TO. They didn't get bought in a pet-shop and were forced to be in my vicinity, nor suddenly appeared in my house as strays. You maybe see the point somewhere there.
  
  My point?
  What benefit could i have from "caring for another being"? Me, personally? The other being, yes, maybe. But me? I could never care ADEQUATELY for any animal.
  Hypothetically, if someone that was very close to you was in a terrible accident at has become paralyzed and no longer capable of taking care of themselves. What benefit do you have in taking care of them. Will you just abandon them? I would hope you are not cold hearted as such. Obviously there is such benefit as companionship with another living creature. Im not judging you for not wanting a pet, i dont have one myself. But you are coming off very cold.
  
  You must've totally misinterpreted. Of course I'd care for those close to me. Even without having any benefit for me. But those people I selected. They didn't just wander into my house like a stray and decided my decisions. I actually work for free in my spare-time with abused people. Just because it's a thing a civilized species should do, but sadly doesn't.
  
  Do you think people go "oh darn... a stray managed to get by my defenses, i guess they live with me now"?...
  
  That is literally was i was lectured on here about. History of the domestication of house-cats :) And no, i can't imagine people actually doing that. That was my whole point.
  
  Newsflash: people choose to have cats too
  
  I don't understand that either, I dislike slavery, i even pay our maid double because i feel bad she works for us. But it's not like I'd force her to, like I'd force a pet to do so.
  
  I... What would you force your pet to do again?
  I need you to understand, nobody, except like dog fighting idiots is forcing their pets. A pet is around and chill with that, otherwise the whole thing is not enjoyable... fish maybe? But you seem to miss a fundamental piece of understanding about pets, and that's fine but why announce your position about something you just never got to experience? Envy? You know you could get a pet today. And it would be a friend. Most likely. And that feels good. It's a very basic human emotion you are trying to discredit here. And I will stress again, if you want to, you can go and get a pet whenever. It's not like being with other's pets.
  
  Ah come on. At first you gonna rob the house-animal of it's basic functions. Like procreating. Then the dog goes on a leash, the cat (unless you just let it roam freely) is confined to your house. Then you're the ultimate master of its fate. Not enough money for the extremely expensive operation needed? Euthanasia it is then. Do you feed it like it would feed itself? Or simply put, would you treat your kid the same like your dog? Does it receive the mystery-horror that is canned food? Oh and the food itself is (partly) a horribly murdered non-house-pet-animal. Doesn't this one deserve your love and care too?
  And btw I had pets once. Dogs and a cat actually. And I did everything for those lil shits up to the very last minute. But they were kinda "forced" onto me, I would never ever willingly get a pet. And however you might see this, to me it is no kind of "friendship". It's ownership. Literally and even legally speaking. I don't like this concept.
  
  Yeah. Who would ever call their pet a friend. They must be really sad stupid people
  
  Oh right, my bad. PETS (not animals per se) are "friends". Cats 'n dogs love to have their balls cut off or uteri removed and thank you for your friendship to make that possible :-) If that works for you, who am I to judge the definition of friendship.

Your last sentence is crazy

"I love all animals, as long as those useless fucks stay outta my way!"
- I love babies as a concept and the joy they bring their parents, but me and my partner are child free by choice, and part of that choice is us not wanting to care for an infant.
  
  You monster! According to the replies here the correlation between liking XYZ and wanting to have and care for XYZ is a must. But yeah, we too.
  
  But to ask "would people actually care for, shelter, and feed an animal they didn't know? Like just bond with a creature for what? Emotional connection, companionship, and kinship to another living thing? I love animals, tho" is just a weird take. Like, you can love animals (or babies) and not want to be responsible for them in your home, but to be incredulous about why someone would want that is ridiculous.
  "Would people really let some stray live with them?"
  That's literally the history of house cats. A million times, yes, people want to hang out with random cats.
  You don't need to want cats or babies to see why other people would want cats or babies.
  
  I do love to interact with all kinds of species, learn from them and whatnot. I totally do. But the words "emotional connection" or "companionship" are very loaded. Most usual pets don't care for my existence at all. Even cats would eat my dead body if they weren't fed. A dog does form a bond, yes. But still. Why would I want that? I even despise the concept of "having a pet". Who am I to enslave some animal to live under my reign? Spell it as romantically as you'd like, in the end, the animal does have to endure whatever you throw at it. I would not want such a "kinship". My kind of "kinship" would end at a racoon (or whatever) coming to my house, gets fed, interacts with me, and then goes on to live the life it usually does.
  I'm aware of the history of housecats, but it surely isn't the majority of people who would just "suddenly now have a cat" because a stray wanders in. Sure there are, yet I would still wonder about the motivation of those. Which was the initial point of my reply. Would YOU do that? Having a sudden responsibility of at least like 200 bucks a month because a stray comes in?
  
  Most usual pets don't care for my existence at all.
  That sucks, dude. I'm sorry you've never experienced that.
  Also, a cat comes into your house and you have to feed it for a day:
  
  I'm sorry you're so anthropomorphizing. Just because a cat purrs when it recognizes you, doesn't mean there's something beyond the obvious. Also, unless you're a vegan animals-rights-activist, what does any of your special bonds mean while opposing doomsday onto all other species. Oh right, we're just talking of "pets". Animals deemed worthy of our affection 😊
  
  Do you realise that you are on the internet shouting at strangers that their cat does not love them?
  
  How dare I, even in science-memes. Blasphemy.
It's like not wanting the ocean in your house even if you love the ocean.
- It's like talking about all the things you hate about the ocean, saying you can't imagine why anyone likes it, and then saying you love it
  
  What a weird argument. I love rain too. Yet i don't want it in my house. I also love elephants. But guess where I totally don't want them. I also like to pet OTHER people's cats and dogs. But that's about it. They enjoy it and that's fine by me. But i don't want all the stupid work and time and money that go into a pet I can't even speak with. Same reason (besides many others though) I don't have kids.
  
  You're clearly very opinionated
  
  At least i have one, arguments including.
- Yeah, it just doesn't make sense!
Just because some things don't align with yours doesn't make it "crazy". But if you prefer it that way? Then yes, I'm crazy I don't want to care for animals that don't belong in my house and force them into my reign. How crazy I prefer my time and money to be mine and mine (and my wife's) alone. How crazy I don't want to spend time scratching cat-poo out of a litter-box. Or go watch a dog on a leach (that would prefer to roam his territory freely, not under my heel) have a shit outside and scrape it off the floor.
Damn, I should take pills for that :)
- That's a very defensive long winded reply to my 5 word comment lol.
  
  I have the time to do it, as I'm not force to comb my cat's shitter for precious remnants :)

That's the same argument I use for not having kids.

Also, I have a dog.

A kid can take care of you when you're old. This is particularly pronounced in the developing world, where it's much harder to save for retirement.
- And I'm being called crazy :-) This is one of the worst and most sad reason for having kids.
  
  So? cheap labor?!
  
  Yes. Cheap labor. That's about it. In tendency of course, not generally.
  
  Sad sure, but is it really crazy though? They're getting taken care of by someone because their government has failed them.
  
  From a pure biological standpoint: No, absolutely. From an intelligent being's standpoint: Yes. Sure, the gov fails the average Joe left and right. Nothing new here, but the last thing I could think of to do anything against this, would be to add another slave-worker dreading its life to this world. Especially not mainly so it could care for my old ass when I can't do so anymore. It's just the epitome of egocentrism. To me at least.
  Sure i can speak easy because I don't have to worry about being cared for, but if I could not, I'd prefer a bullet to the head at the right point in time over burdening my offspring with my care. And they doing the same later, and so on and so on.
  
  Will you do that when you're old, or will you just burden someone else's slave-worker kids?
  Qualify of life could improve significantly within a lifetime. We're squandering resources on 1% of people.

I could understand having a pet, but not taking in a random stray without question.

Some strange cat walks into my house? It gets plopped right back into the street, that ain't my cat!

I took in a stray kitten that someone dumped at my work back in the fall. I wasn't sure if i would keep her or not, but i felt obligated to clean her up and feed her while i figured out what to do with her. As soon as she started interacting with my other kitten, they became best friends and i couldn't in good conscience seperate them.
Another friend of mine slowly took in a stray cat over the fourse of a summer. Leave out food for it of it hangs out around your house until it starts to nuzzle up against you. Then you can pet it, maybe pick it up, and then take it to a doctor to get it checked out.
It sounds to me though, that the other guy just doesn't like animals.
I actually dunno what I would do, but I probably wouldn't kick it out. I'd feed it and stuff, but ultimately won't keep it.

so like, you seriously look at stuff like this and don't see the appeal? A small adorable fuzzball that obviously loves you, that doesn't make you feel happy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br9mbo0ujI4

I never said I don't like animals. I do pet them whenever I can and they want to. I really like interacting with any species and learn from it. But I, personally, don't get anything else out of it, emotion-wise. The love of my wife makes me happy, because it's a mutual feeling we can communicate about. The cat (or whichever else animal) does not "love" me. At best it tolerance or even likes my presence. That's not inherently bad or anything, it just is and I wouldn't lie to my it ain't.