Is it just the Grinch in me?

[Tiny Boidae]

What I have a problem with is putting an animal in a stressful situation, for instance the dog fashion thing. I don't really have a problem if a snake has a little hat on, as I don't really think that they register that they have a tiny flap of cotton on their head. What's more stressful is probably the fact that their out in the open, in which case we can throw handling animals into this mix.

Painting a dog's nails, dressing a cat up for Halloween, or putting a Santa hat on a snake is really our attempt at anthropomorphising our animals, which I know really grinds some people's gears.

I know this is derailing the topic a little, but there are some instances where people send me pictures or videos of an animal that is clearly in distress. For example, those pictures with the water dragons stretched out on a lounge chair on their back. It's common knowledge that you shouldn't put these animals on their backs, not because they can't breathe but because it's extremely stressful for an animal to expose their soft bellies, and induces what's theorized to be a state of Tonic Immobility (like when you see divers flip reef sharks onto their backs and the shark becomes completely unresponsive until it's righted again). I have a problem with it because it's obviously stressful, and I get people send me these pictures just because I own these animals all the time. I don't really have a problem with putting a hat on a snake, as it's sort of a "no harm no foul" kind of rule.

My logic is if it doesn't harm the animal, don't sweat it. Sure it might be disrespecting the animal's predator status, but they don't understand what respect is. So it's really more about the viewer and their opinions and less about the animal. I kinda beat my opinion into the ground here, but I hope my thought process on this makes sense.