I love animals. I enjoy zoos and whatnot and am always disappointed that the only things you’re allowed to pet are stinky goats (especially since you have to walk through a minefield of bb sized poop). I don’t know what it is about me that wants to pet pretty much everything, even if it has poisoned quills or would probably chew my hand off.
My favoritist animal of all are penguins. I squee like a little girl when around ‘em. If they didn’t projectile poop every 15 minutes and were legal to own, I’d SO love to have one for a pet. I’ve never really gotten the chance to play with one or pet one although I did get my picture taken with one at the zoo a few years ago (however the penguin had to sit in the handler’s lap, providing a kind of creepy photo-bomb effect).
I have no problem hunting animals for food or population control. I’d just as soon pet a deer (which my aunt used to have as pets) as I would kill it to have venison stew. However, I love animals nonetheless and wish it wasn’t harmful to them (or myself) to have a zoo where you could walk right up to them rather than be forced to watch them from a distance.