We Need To Stop Saying Animals Love Unconditionally (They Don’t)

It is unhealthy and untrue

Grant Piper
5 min readOct 1, 2024
Photo by Caleb Fisher on Unsplash

When asked why people love their pets, many times, they spout drivel about how their animals love them unconditionally. This is such a common phrase that it comes up everywhere and has been uttered countless times. The problem with this statement is that it is unequivocally false. Animal love is not unconditional. It is entirely conditional. Furthermore, spreading such falsehoods is unhealthy for both human relationships and animal relationships.

At their core, most animals are relatively simple creatures. They want to feel safe, they want to be fed, and they want to receive some stimulation that activates specific parts of their brains. Animals seek these things constantly and it is why pets are such good companions — humans provide these things in spades. The love given by an animal is not unconditional. It is the opposite. It is entirely conditional based on the fact that you feed them, house them, and interact with them. If you stopped doing these things, your beloved pet’s demeanor would surely change.

But let us assume for a second that an animal’s love is unconditional. That is sick in its own sort of way. People craving this kind of love leave a quiet undertone, suggesting that even if they don’t provide for the animal, they still…

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Grant Piper

Professional writer. Amateur historian. Husband, father, Christian.