It's completely clear cut before you're responsible for the animal: don't bring a pet into an unsuitable living situation. This is why the safety and environmental arguments ring hollow for me - nobody forces you to get a cat.
I firmly believe animal rights movements should discourage pet owning but it's often the other way around, at least from where i'm from.
It's extremely socially acceptable to get two dogs in your tiny apartment and keep them in kennels while you're at work for 9 hours, and again for 9 hours overnight. People will even come out of the woodwork to convince you that the dogs actually prefer that.
I also think we need to dial back breeding. Breeders just dump unwanted animals into street/pound circulation while breeding the most gimped animals (purebreds) out there, the last thing we need.