CS Debate Thread

[Bluish]

I dont really agree in leaving animals outside either. My dogs and birds have always been indoors and have been great so far. Yeah, sometimes it isn't pleasant to clean after them but I guess that is the payment for having pets. Plus, my grandparents had a dog freeze to death in it's doghouse outside and my uncle's outside dogs are always so ill so I have never seen a good situation with that >.>

I don' really agree here, sorry. We don' specifically leave our pets outside with no way to get in, we do have a cat/dog flap that they use, but still. My cat, 6 yrs old, spends 2/8 of his day sleeping in my room, the rest outside. I have no idea where he goes, but he's usually outside at night time. He is free to go wherever he wishes and he always comes back completely unharmed. Our dogs were outside dogs - labradors, at that. They lived outside, weren't allowed inside. We had some stinking hot days and some freezing cold days, but both of them survived fine and had no health problems.

[bruises]

Before we owned him, my dog was toed up outside all day, every day, and bow he's deathly afraid of storms. Also, we've almost lost so many cats to owls, too many close calls. ALSO, my pets are seriously too stupid to make it outside. My cat got out once, and we found her an hour later, lost in a bush three houses down and crying for her life. xP So yeah, I don't agree with leaving my pets outside. Nothing good has ever come out of it for me.

Huh, not a good area for it then? My cat has been going outside for 13 or so years and still is perfectly fine. My horse can only go outside in a pasture, the big wide world is too wide and scary for him!
~RZZ

Lulz, free roaming horses would definitely not be a good idea. XD


I think that horses should be kept outside, in safe, proper pastures. But I also think that they still require and should get human interaction. We check in on our horses every day, at least once a day, even the ones that don't get worked get some grooming and attention. And during the colder months they're kept inside overnight, and get turned out each day. Horses are big, and herd animals, and can't really get to herd around properly when stalled inside. But they also shouldn't just be put on a field and ignored.

Dogs are pack animals, and I believe that they should be living with the pack. If you (general you) want your dogs to be part of your pack, why not keep them with you, as much as possible? Tossing a dog out in the backyard and letting them spend most of their lives on the end of a rope, away from interaction and the rest of the pack, that generally don't lead to a happy dog. I also don't see the sense in getting a dog you don't want to spend time with. But I don't think there's anything wrong in putting the dog outside in a safe secure yard without being there with them every single minute, as long as it's not excessive, and as long as the dog isn't miserable. And of course all dogs need actual walks (yes, even the ones with a yard to roam, or the ones that are constantly tied up outside). Out in the fresh air, off and see some sights and smell some new smells.
I don't think free roaming dogs is a good idea either.

I think most cats can be quite happy as indoor cats, or as indoor cats with occasional monitored, safe access to the outdoors (being on a leash, being in a cat proof enclosure). Free roaming outdoor cats simple aren't safe, and I've seen too much bad happen to outdoor cats. All of mine are indoors (a few of them that do want it gets monitored outdoor times), and they're quite happy and alive that way.

Rabbits are also safer inside. I don't believe anyone actually would let their rabbits roam freely around the neighbourhood, but having them living in hutches outside can often end badly. If there's predators in the neighbourhood (including your neighbours' free roaming outdoor cats and dogs), your rabbit (general your) has no means of escape or protection. Unless you have a really secure hutch for them. It's just safer to keep them in the house.

In general, I don't see the point in getting a pet if you're actually not going to spend time with it, or make sure to keep it safe. :>
/end my two cents

[Orbitsy]

What do you guys think about keeping rabbits in cages ? ;___; personally I think it's really cruel. I have a house rabbit and I would never shove my little guy in a cage D8

[seifuku]

Where would the rabbit go then? You can't let a rabbit wander around unsupervised, especially when you have other animals like cats around.

[Orbitsy]

I don't have any other animals in the house, and the rabbit lives in a room downstairs ^^ he's litter trained, he can't get up out of the room by himself because of the step, he's fine xD. It allows him to get a little exercise, I guess . 3. (he's still a fat bunny D8<) and doesn't keep him locked up in a tiny little space. He has the whole room to wander around ^^

[seifuku]

I suppose that's possible, but that is a pretty time consuming process. Many people don't have the time to litter train a rabbit, and even less have a room to spare. I own a rabbit, as well as several cats and a husky, but the rabbit seems perfectly content in his cage. He gets out at least twice a day to run around, but only when we can watch him. He'd likely end up a meal otherwise, because I do not put that past my cats at all.

[Orbitsy]

Rabbits are actually very easy to littertrain ^^
Although if people have other pets, I can see the problem.

[June Bug]

I know this isn't really debate-y but I just woke up, sort of.

My boyfriend left at 7am for work as usual, but I was still very tired and figured I'd just turn around and sleep a couple more hours.

I have no idea why, but as soon as I laid back down again, I started to feel pretty panicky because of the darkness in the room. That's kinda lame, I suppose, but despite feeling this, I fell asleep at some point, because I know I was dreaming.

I was dreaming I was awake, while /knowing/ it was just a dream and not being able to wake up. I remember getting up in the dream and trying to turn on the lights, just to have them fail on me, so that I couldn't see anything but the overwhelming darkness. And I remember being able to run out of the room, outside the house where it was light, and seeing a cloaked creature slipping back to the room as I screamed at it.

I remember all of this as if it'd had happened while I was awake. I was. Awake and trying to wake up.

Not one of the most terrifying experiences in my life, but definitely scary knowing that you are awake but not actually able to wake up. :(

Has sleep paralysis ever happened to one of you? :P

I have frequent sleep paralysis 'attacks' and one of the things about it is that you're paralyzed so it doesn't sound like that's what you experienced. Possibly something similar, but during sleep paralysis, you don't get up and walk around. Things can happen around you as though in a dream, but movement and speech are pretty much impossible, in fact, one of the ways you can snap yourself out is to focus on trying to move, even just wiggle a pinky.
There's also an inexplicable sense of intense terror, difficulty breathing, possible sensory hallucinations, but no getting up.
My guess is, it was a hypnogogic hallucination, which can be very similar in that you feel very much like you are awake because you partially are. They occur in the transition between wakefulness and sleep and many people don't realize they're having one unless snapped out in the middle of one. Even then, they are easily forgotten.

[Jackdaw Lord]

I know this isn't really debate-y but I just woke up, sort of.

My boyfriend left at 7am for work as usual, but I was still very tired and figured I'd just turn around and sleep a couple more hours.

I have no idea why, but as soon as I laid back down again, I started to feel pretty panicky because of the darkness in the room. That's kinda lame, I suppose, but despite feeling this, I fell asleep at some point, because I know I was dreaming.

I was dreaming I was awake, while /knowing/ it was just a dream and not being able to wake up. I remember getting up in the dream and trying to turn on the lights, just to have them fail on me, so that I couldn't see anything but the overwhelming darkness. And I remember being able to run out of the room, outside the house where it was light, and seeing a cloaked creature slipping back to the room as I screamed at it.

I remember all of this as if it'd had happened while I was awake. I was. Awake and trying to wake up.

Not one of the most terrifying experiences in my life, but definitely scary knowing that you are awake but not actually able to wake up.

Has sleep paralysis ever happened to one of you?

I have frequent sleep paralysis 'attacks' and one of the things about it is that you're paralyzed so it doesn't sound like that's what you experienced. Possibly something similar, but during sleep paralysis, you don't get up and walk around. Things can happen around you as though in a dream, but movement and speech are pretty much impossible, in fact, one of the ways you can snap yourself out is to focus on trying to move, even just wiggle a pinky.
There's also an inexplicable sense of intense terror, difficulty breathing, possible sensory hallucinations, but no getting up.
My guess is, it was a hypnogogic hallucination, which can be very similar in that you feel very much like you are awake because you partially are. They occur in the transition between wakefulness and sleep and many people don't realize they're having one unless snapped out in the middle of one. Even then, they are easily forgotten.

I remember walking around in the dream, to a certain degree, I didn't even realize I was dreaming and I thought I was still awake, after a while I realized it was a dream and that I had to wake up but was unable to wake up/move at all. Regardless, I did wake up at one point and came to the computer (thus my post).

A couple of hours later I was feeling downright exhausted and I moved to the bed to try and catch some sleep again. As soon as I turned on my side I started to feel my body go numb, I couldn't move at all (except a toe) and had auditive hallucinations (started to listen to people speaking, music, screams, all at the same time), no visual hallucinations because I usually cover my head while sleeping and had my eyes closed. I managed to wake myself up/snap out of it by wriggling my toe, but as soon as I was awake and tried to actually SLEEP, I kept getting into the paralysis state.

[June Bug]

I know this isn't really debate-y but I just woke up, sort of.

My boyfriend left at 7am for work as usual, but I was still very tired and figured I'd just turn around and sleep a couple more hours.

I have no idea why, but as soon as I laid back down again, I started to feel pretty panicky because of the darkness in the room. That's kinda lame, I suppose, but despite feeling this, I fell asleep at some point, because I know I was dreaming.

I was dreaming I was awake, while /knowing/ it was just a dream and not being able to wake up. I remember getting up in the dream and trying to turn on the lights, just to have them fail on me, so that I couldn't see anything but the overwhelming darkness. And I remember being able to run out of the room, outside the house where it was light, and seeing a cloaked creature slipping back to the room as I screamed at it.

I remember all of this as if it'd had happened while I was awake. I was. Awake and trying to wake up.

Not one of the most terrifying experiences in my life, but definitely scary knowing that you are awake but not actually able to wake up. :(

Has sleep paralysis ever happened to one of you? :P

I have frequent sleep paralysis 'attacks' and one of the things about it is that you're paralyzed so it doesn't sound like that's what you experienced. Possibly something similar, but during sleep paralysis, you don't get up and walk around. Things can happen around you as though in a dream, but movement and speech are pretty much impossible, in fact, one of the ways you can snap yourself out is to focus on trying to move, even just wiggle a pinky.
There's also an inexplicable sense of intense terror, difficulty breathing, possible sensory hallucinations, but no getting up.
My guess is, it was a hypnogogic hallucination, which can be very similar in that you feel very much like you are awake because you partially are. They occur in the transition between wakefulness and sleep and many people don't realize they're having one unless snapped out in the middle of one. Even then, they are easily forgotten.

I remember walking around in the dream, to a certain degree, I didn't even realize I was dreaming and I thought I was still awake, after a while I realized it was a dream and that I had to wake up but was unable to wake up/move at all. Regardless, I did wake up at one point and came to the computer (thus my post).

A couple of hours later I was feeling downright exhausted and I moved to the bed to try and catch some sleep again. As soon as I turned on my side I started to feel my body go numb, I couldn't move at all (except a toe) and had auditive hallucinations (started to listen to people speaking, music, screams, all at the same time), no visual hallucinations because I usually cover my head while sleeping and had my eyes closed. I managed to wake myself up/snap out of it by wriggling my toe, but as soon as I was awake and tried to actually SLEEP, I kept getting into the paralysis state. :/

Ah, yeah, that sounds like sleep paralysis. That first post was just the dream that happened before then?

I used to have anything from just hearing a hum or grow to full on auditory/visual/tactile hallucinations. Lately, I've been able to snap myself out before I went fully under though and I've started covering my head as well and facing the wall so even on the rare occasion that I do slip under, I don't see anything anymore. xD
I find it's easier to snap out if you have some low volume music on so when you start feeling the numbness, concentrate on the music and wiggle your toes or flex your fingers. Do you also fel a weird 'energy wave' sensation? It's a bit hard to explain what it feels like, but if you feel it, you'll know what I mean. If it gets to that point for me, I make sure to either sit up or roll over to shake it off. If it's a regular thing for you, or starts to become one, try taking note of the times of night it happens. For me, it's between 1am and 3am almost always, so I just make sure to either go to sleep before or after those times which really helps. It's something about your regular sleep pattern that causes that. I think it's because that's when your mental state is prepped for deep sleep so when you try to fall asleep, you're body is trying to go through normal sleep stages, but your mind is trying to jump the gun to deep sleep, causing your dreams to project into your awakened state. Not completely positive on that though. There's still a lot of debate on the subject.
There's also a whole paranormal belief side to it, but none of it makes much sense to me. xD Just superstitious mumbo jumbo in my opinion.

And you probably didn't want a whole mini-wall on it, but yeah, I got carried away, so there ya go. xD