Initially I took Lady Sage's comment as she was going to quit TFP because of this--which is how I imagine others took it as well. But I re-evaluated it, gave her the benefit of the doubt, and decided that she more likely meant that she was going to let go of the thread, not the entire site.
I think that a Pet forum would likely generate more interaction than the Trampoline forum generally does now, and it'd be a forum I'd be much more interested in, if for nothing more than the cute pictures.
However, I also agree that there is not a substantive history of thriving pet-related topics (excepting the Post Your Pet thread in Photography, perhaps). So I'd encourage the interested folks to prove their point, positively and without rancor.
The mods aren't pet-hating folks, come on. Statements like those negatively affect the credibility of those making them, and reflect poorly on the cause.