I wonder what kind of legal recognition might work to encourage and recognize pet owners who have developed particularly deep (I'm not talking sexual necessarily) bonds to their pets. Considering the benefits of such relationships to society I think they deserve some recognition, not really marriage (which was brought up by some commenters), but something.
I think they deserve some recognition
As a consequentialist, the question I care about when considering whether recognition should be granted is whether the recognition of the relationship has a societal benefit, not whether the relationship has societal benefit regardless of the recognition.
A thought occurred to me today as I skimmed an article in a rationality forum where the subject of gay marriage cropped up; seeing as the issue has been hotly contested in various public fora and especially the courts, what about poly? After all, many if not all the arguments for gay marriage apply to poly marriage as well.
Questions for LWers who are currently in a such a relationship, or have an opinion to share:
Do polies want to marry each other or do such relationships not lend themselves to permanence above a threshold of partners? Should polies campaign for the right for a civil union anyway? what are the up and down sides of this? etc