They are aware. They are trying to get you to understand that animals are individuals and not just things for us to manipulate to suit our desires.

Edit: I'm not saying this to judge or make you feel called out by the way.

The only pets that really make sense to me are rescuing animals since they don’t have a habitat that is safe or natural for them, thanks to humans. Tons of animals become rescued after animal testing or get rescued from farms before slaughter or after serial exploitation. Dogs and cats have intensely huge populations outdoors and live longer lives without reproducing when humans spay and neuter them and keep them from roaming. Meanwhile tons are continuing to be bred with health defects cause humans think it’s cute and funny and a literal money-making scheme.

So as I’m opposed to breeding pigs and gerbils and dogs and cats and parrots as different shapes and sizes to compete in little competitions for some simpleminded human satisfaction like you suggest, I think it makes more sense to rescue animals and work to stop all the ways we breed them for profit without regard for their lives or quality of life or health as a whole, outside of their entertainment value to us humans.