Pets

(Copied straight from .XML 'backup' file, needs formatting and corrections. ZM User (talk) 20:15, 22 April 2024 (PDT))

Pets in the Diaspora

   At the beginning of the Swarm War, the AIs running all our ships had a non-negotiable policy of not taking _anything_ except humans, all of whom must be either Sponsor, Concubine, or Dependent.  As time passed, however, cracks in this wall began to appear.  Working animals to assist us, live food animals to supplement or replace the replicators, pets to calm the adults and teach the children how to care for them, by the time the war was over (from Earth's point of view) there were almost as many species of 'pets' in the Diaspora as there were colonies.

Rabbits

Ishtar had a stable export business in rabbits by Year 4.

Dogs

(Amateurs and others showed service dogs accompanying their partners)

Cats

THE Harem Tales 1 The Times They Are A Changing' showed a cat going with the family; the followup story THE Harem Tales 2 Girls Just Wanna Have Fun features a breeding pair of cats.

Cows, Horses, Goats, and Other 'livestock'

Chosen Frozen has a pet goat delivered to Thule.
(Several stories touch on attempts to transplant complete farms and ranches to the colonies.)

Non-Traditional Pets

Vandergast shows the development of an AI-based robotic 'stingray'.
Pickup Loop Hole shows an entire zoo's worth of non-traditional pets learning to live in a Confederacy ship.
At various times and places, Sponsors were allowed to modify Concubines to the point of them being pets rather than viable human beings.

Confederacy and AI Support

The Confederacy's AIs are the guardians of the status quo.  Expect them to resist any change at all.  However, once forced into dealing with pets, they will attempt to at least minimize the trouble they cause.  All mobile pets must be monitored.  We could use collars or bracelets, but most animals will spend their lives trying to get rid of them, so an internal chip or implant is more practical.

Thinker's Take

From email 5/11/16:
MO: Any objections to Baby and Eminence getting implants so that Dora can monitor them directly?  This was reader suggested.  Not sure I like it - just asking...
ZM: On ship or base or colony, as long as they are in an AI-monitored 'space' there is no need for Baby or Eminence to get chipped.  However, the same is true of human babies, and canon says they get a wrist or leg band.  I assume the reason is to be able to find them if, somehow, they manage to get somewhere that is not monitored.  This is not possible in a closed system like "spaceship" or "moonbase" or Ishtar or the Womb, but it is possible on an open colony like Demeter or New Alabama.
So, since the cats are not very good at obeying orders like 'stay inside', I'd say yes chip them.  It's what we do with pets on Earth, so there's no good moral reason to say no.  The AIs will object, of course, on the grounds that this will dilute their monitoring of other self-mobile assets like conks and kids.  That should be answered with "We understand that, it's why we try to limit pets.  However, any pet that is actually taken needs an implant."
TH: The AIs can suck it up. They have the resources and the capacity.

(Someday this will be a navigation template.  It will provide a bar across the bottom of each article with useful navigation links.  Until then, this is just a placeholder to get rid of all the red "broken link" indicators. -ZM User (talk) 10:00, 3 May 2024 (PDT))