Interesting extrapolations. These are some of the same arguments that came to mind for me while pondering the questions in my post. I didn't get many responses from actual vegans here on Steemit, but I posted a similar thing on Facebook and got a few. I found that the answer is: "Depends on the vegan."

One woman said no pets aren't slaves, and that even milk cows aren't slaves if they're raised under certain conditions.

One person said that yes, pets are slaves but it's a tough ethical question because most domestic pet breeds were basically engineered by humans to have crappy, sometimes even grotesque disabilities that would prevent them from being able to survive in the wild. (This person was in favor of taking in pets as rescues, but not supporting the pet breeding industry, and always spaying/neutering.)

Yet another vegan said that he would never have a pet because it made him feel like a slave.

So apparently there is no consensus, as of yet.

Thanks for the resteem and the follow up post! Glad to get your wheels spinning!