So how many of my readers have cages for their pets? That, right there, if an animal is considered human, becomes abuse. You cannot crate a child, they will remove that child from your family. If an animal is your child, or considered human, would that not also apply?
What about leaving your pet at home when you go to work? Most adults have an 8hr a day job, plus need time for transportation. Not everyone puts their pet in "daycare", nor does everyone pay someone to sit with their pet, nor take it out periodically through the day. If your animal is your child, or considered human, you've just committed child abandonment, that pet is now no longer in your care.
What about potty training? A friend mentioned that her child was just not getting the idea of peeing in the potty, while another friend recently mentioned frustration at her child being unwilling to poop in the toilet. My response? "Rub their nose in it." There are a vast number of methods for both potty training and housebreaking, and I bet none of them coincide. I simply carried my dog everywhere, and took him out every hour on the hour to housebreak him. When I wasn't carrying him around or taking him out, he was in his cage, which was large enough for him to stand up in and turn around and lay down and that was it. Please refer to my above point regarding crates. Also, it's not exactly a feasible method of potty training a child, mostly because they will pee on you, while my puppy never did. When my dog did have an accident, he was shouted at and shown the accident he had, then taken outside to his potty spot. From what I'm told, this would be unacceptable for a child, mostly because of the shouting. (Disclaimer, I know that most people no longer rub their animal's nose in their mess. I'm a sasshole, get over it.)
How about collars and leashes? I know that some people will put their children on a leash(my younger niece once saw this, pointed at the child and started shouting and laughing "LOOK MOMMY, THAT KID'S ON A LEASH LIKE A PUPPY!!!"), but they're usually attached via harness, rather than around the neck. How many people leave a collar on their dog all the time? I don't imagine that would be looked upon too well if it were a child!
And clothes/boots. Some people put coats on their dogs, or even boots. With children, these are generally required, and I am sure you would get charged if you took your child out without clothing on.
Microchipping!! There's a huge push these days to microchip your animal, and with good reason. Should that animal go walk about, the microchip provides information as to where your pet belongs and how to contact you... Could you imagine the outrage if people started pushing for children to be microchipped? And while we're on the subject, what about "doggy jail"? If your pet goes walkabout, it is captured by the authorities and taken to the shelter, where you have up to 3 days to claim it(in most cases.) If dogs are children, would that be considered unlawful confinement, or kidnapping? Would the authorities need to simply stop picking up animals at large? I mean, they don't pick up kids just because they're walking around without an adult(yes, I understand that they will pick up small children without parents, I'm more talking about tweens and teenagers.)
How about feeding. How many people feed their pets on a schedule, half their food in the morning, half at night? And feed the same food day in and day out. If animals suddenly become people, do we need to feed them a bigger variety of foods, on plates at the dinner table? Does it become abuse if you feed them from a bowl on the floor?
School. Children above a specific age are required to go to school, and parents will be charged if they do not. Does that make obedience classes mandatory if animals are people? Will they have to create a public school system for every species of pet animal? Although, having mandatory free obedience classes for all dogs might not be a bad thing...
Now, I know I am taking this to extremes. And I could keep going on and on pointing out these extreme examples of how animals are not humans. I'm not trying to belittle those who think their animals are like children... Well, not exactly anyway. The problem is that people use buzz words, or speak without thinking. I know I'm just as guilty of it as the next person, and know that I have said in the past that my dog is like my baby, or my dog thinks he's people, or a million other little things that say my dog is equal to a person. At the end of they day, though, I know he's not. I know that while it's considered normal and acceptable to have my dog sleep at the foot of my bed, it would be abusive and horrible to do that to a child. The problem comes with people who do not want to make that distinction, and who think that animals need more rights, or need to be treated more like people. They don't. They do need stricter laws and punishment for true abuse and neglect, and they need a proper distinction between what is and is not abuse, and what is and is not neglect. Just because something is done differently than you yourself would do it, doesn't make it wrong. But they will never be able to settle on a standard of care, nor on definitions of what is or is not abuse or neglect.
The long and short of it is, though, that animals are not humans. They don't need to be treated like humans. And people need to understand that.