To what extent do some people enjoy having a pet animal because they feel too oppressed, too controlled in their life, so the pet provides an outlet for their frustration, a chance to turn the tables and fully control another being's life? This could be measured by studies of pet ownership versus control of one's life.
It's not necessarily the case that the pets suffer in such an arrangement. Certainly dogs have been literally genetically bred to enjoy having masters and serving them. (Update: it seems dogs' propensity to serve masters is just a small modification to their undomesticated propensity to follow the alpha dog in a pack, so most of their behavior is not a result of humans directing their evolution.)
Do people have children for the same reason?
In another era, people perhaps derived pleasure from owning slaves for this reason.
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