Pets is the name of the debut single by alternative rock band Porno for Pyros

Porno for Pyros

Porno for Pyros was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1992, following the initial break-up of Jane's Addiction...

. The song became a #1 hit on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Modern Rock Tracks

Modern Rock Tracks

Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...

 chart. The song's success was aided, in part, by a unique video directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are a team of American music video directors, also husband and wife, that received critical acclaim for their feature film directorial debut, Little Miss Sunshine....

 (they would later direct the critically acclaimed film Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama film. The road movie's plot follows a family's trip to a children's beauty pageant.Little Miss Sunshine was the directorial film debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer...

) which received heavy rotation on MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

.

Meaning

The song deals with dissatisfaction with the human race ("Adults are even more fucked up") and how the humanity is on the brink of destruction ("My friend says we're like the dinosaurs only we are doing ourselves in much faster than they ever did"). The song then describes how maybe aliens, such as Martians, will be able to take over for us, and then states that we would make great pets to our overlords.