You also get to choose your companions, or lack of them as the case may be. Given the choice, I suspect guinea pigs and parrots would choose the company of othe

You also get to choose your companions, or lack of them as the case may be. Given the choice, I suspect guinea pigs and parrots would choose the company of others. As pets they don't have that choice. Please note that I'm not saying anything about the keeping of animals as pets, or the social instincts of parrots or guinea pigs, or even whether or not the regulation is a good one. Just that the analogy you present here doesn't hold.