My dogs are pretty happy being pets, they were both strays, one of them was down to 4 pounds when we found him (he should weight around 10 pounds). I'm sure living here in the house with his blankets and toys and plenty of food every day beats the hell out of running around on the street with matted hair, starving in weather that was near freezing.
All my cats are strays that were dumped as kittens, by morons who can't figure out that if you take your girl cat to the vet and have a surgery she will stop having kittens. One of them had been living outside in the freezing cold, starving for so long he had actually been eating shit. When we brought him in and fed him cat food, he puked up this huge pile of shit. I'm sure he prefers a nice warm bed to sleep on and his kitty food to freezing in below zero weather and eating shit.
Another one of my cats was dumped when he was around 4 1/2 weeks old, talk about cruelty, he really wasn't even weened yet. I'm positive he was dumped because his 2 brothers were dumped with him.
Now they are all spoiled, I don't think a single one would trade the life they have for a life of starvation on the street.