What happened to dogs and cats in Night City?

[A.J]

There is a sequence where you see a cat and you talk about the fate of pets/animals in Night City and your character says they "thought they were all gone". I found this a bit weird because one of the first things I saw in the game was a cat outside Viktor's clinic being fed by a person. Apparently dogs and cats were thrown away and cats "put up a fight the longest" but now almost none of them remain.

So what exactly happened? Pets were outlawed and deemed unsuitable for city life? Haven't seen this explained anywhere so I figured I'd ask to see if anybody knows.

[Venoum]

Explained in a shard, bunch of animal born diseases swept through, leading to a purge and seriously high taxes for those that keep 'em.

[Piderman]

Because of diseases and such. Birds in the Area for example got completely wiped out for that reason. Natural Meat is pretty much banned, also because of pathogens and i think radiation.

[Zebedee]

Animals which didn't go extinct were killed to prevent them acting as vectors for disease. There are still some about in the wild - at least one bird (a tribute to someone's mum by the devs) and the cat (who could be a loa or bakeneko). Obviously you see references to the trade to those rare ones still left too.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Psst, dont tell my landlord.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2333640659

[Piderman]

Originally posted by Zebedee:

Obviously you see references to the trade to those rare ones still left too.

Also cloning of formerly extinct animals aparently becomes a thing according to that one radio show.

[Zebedee]

Originally posted by Delamain:

Also cloning of formerly extinct animals aparently becomes a thing according to that one radio show.

Yeah, that's in the source material too, and fits back up with the taxation only the wealthy can afford which Venoum mentioned. I've not seen that actually in game though, just the references in the fluff.

[Miss Naughty Vixen]

There is also the side quest to get one for your apartment.

[herbstwerk]

There was info about Pseudo/RoboPets in on of the Chromebooks for the P&P RPG iirc... so maybe we'll see more pets with a DLC later.

[Namhaid]

There is the shards as well as some bits and pieces here and there in the game. There is a news repport saying that the taxes for pet owners have gone up, and one of the drug vendors says that he is a veterinarian, but that since there are no animals and the few ones owned by the rich have so many implants that need ripperdocs, he had to find another job.

[GlorFindel1983]

They all live in that one back alley, behind that one house and you can pet them to your hearts desire! ;-)

[Dondu]

when you dont like reading, this happen :)

[robert.s_a]

I think its mentioned you have to pay a tax of 1000 eddies a month to keep a single animal, so I assume the vast majority of pets are owned by high ranking corpos with the money and nice apartments to house them.

[Irot Noot]

There is even a radio announcement, news style explaining that it now costs $1,000 Eddies a month for a pet license and the fine for owning an unlicensed pet was $40,000 Eddies. Ive heard this announcement over the radio several times over my 100+ hours of play so far.

[َ]

Soylent Green

[Kodiak412]

Originally posted by Miss Naughty Vixen:

There is also the side quest to get one for your apartment.

Not just any one, but Nibbles!

Probably hitched a ride with Ciri.