Discuss: What’s the Use of Pets?

After reading this article, I wanted to share something I wrote this winter about our cat.  I think it hits the same nerve as the author’s conclusion.

Meaningful Moment with Franny in Winter Sunlight

Hrothgar, one of our first two kittens, met her demise a few years ago on our road in Fillmore, New York.  I still recall with an ache in my chest the vision of her lying still and lifeless on the gravel shoulder, her face black on one half and rusty-orange on the other, never again to nip my toes in the morning or stalk the baby.  It happened a few days after she saw me fearlessly cross the street to walk to a friends’ house.  She had first wanted to follow me, and I shooed her back to the house.  She stood there watching me, head tilted slightly to the right, wondering where I was going without her.  I remember feeling a terrible pang of guilt for teaching her, unintentionally, by my example, to not fear the road.
Franny, her sister-kitty, lives with us still and is a quite tolerant cat, allowing the children to scoop her up into their arms, dress her, and occasionally even spin her around.  Despite this treatment, she prefers to spend the night curled up asleep in bed with them, a living fur rug for their feet. 
We now live in rural Virginia, and the scenic country road, a shortcut to I-81, is flooded with heavy traffic day and night.  There are workers commuting from West Virginia, semi-trucks en route to deliver Little Debbie cakes to Canada, local poultry trucks loaded with battery cages of white fat chickens, shedding feathers every mile.  Purportedly another road, the infamous and highly controversial Corridor H, will eventually be finished and is expected to reroute traffic away from our neighborhood into someone else’s. In the meantime, I take my life into my hands every time I cross it to get the mail.  This is the yang to our yin of peaceful country living.
One day this week I stood near the mailbox, watching semi-trucks barreling past as I waited to cross back to our house, counting the number of vehicles motoring by to pass the time while I waited for safety.  It must have been a midweek afternoon because I was weighed down with a heavier-than-usual case of ennui, wondering what was the meaning of my life and whether I was fulfilling my cosmic purpose.  The mailbox had been empty.  How is this fulfilling my great purpose, I wondered, to risk my life walking to empty mailboxes?  A series of cars approached.  Suddenly I saw Franny look at me and shoot down the gravel driveway as if she might hurtle straight to me.  A moment of frozen terror seized me as she drew closer to the road, then she suddenly stopped and lay down on the gravel drive, waiting for me to come to her.  Slowly I crossed the road, dazed with the sensation one has only after having seen the inevitable horrific thing not come to pass, and felt, for the first time that day, alive in all my senses.  I noticed the sun hanging just a few inches above the treeline, a ball of blatant light, and the particular slant of light that comes in mid-December afternoons, whiter than in summer.  The day was unseasonably warm, ideal for my lightweight sweater.  The air clung comfortably on the exposed skin of my face and neck, the dead leaves that lined the driveway rustled softly as I passed.  I enjoyed the sensation of my shoes cushioning my feet from the sharp stones.  I stopped near Franny, who was now rolling gleefully in the dust, and bent down to touch her thick, soft, black fur, which reminded me momentarily of animal pelts I had seen for sale at the Short Track Trading Post.  Unlike those fox and coon pelts, however, Franny was substantial, warm, breathing.  I could feel her heart beating against my fingers.  Her warmth, a few degrees warmer than human blood, radiated into my hand, giving it life.  I had a surreal feeling as if this could be the end of it all, the last moment of all living things, or at least of my life.  Yet it would be perfect. It seemed that all the individual seconds of time, past and future, were contained in that one present moment.  This could have been the last, and I would have welcomed the nothingness that came next. 
Slowly, I stood, and put my fingertips to my nose, expecting to inhale some trace of fragrance lingering from the mystical moment.  It smelled only like me, reminiscent of earth and garlic, and like outdoor air.  I wanted to remember it forever.  As I walked toward my house, everything appeared to me as though it had been shot at 24 frames per second.  My life was saturated with meaning, and it had absolutely nothing to do with me.

Fascinating article! I wonder if, in time, these kinds of conventions could include booths for the SPCA and no-kill shelters to really flesh out the entire spectrum of the effects of animal domesticity. Perhaps one reason humans are so attached to housepets is due to the lack of seeing animals in their natural habitats. Here in sw Montana,  it is common place to daily view pronghorn, elk, osprey, eagles, mule and white tailed deer, and less commonly moose, wolves, bison, fox and black bear. There are horses, sheep and cattle aplenty, also.
It appears, as a recent transplant to this state, that few folks have pets other than as an extension of their working cattle and bird dogs. I wonder if there is a connection.

Thanks Ginger Strand for this marvelous article—it struck a nerve, I guess because I consider 21st century America’s relationship with animals irrational and cruel to the extreme.  I would call it a sin against god, if I believed in sin or god.  Which I might.

The lurid case of Michael Vick points out this societal schizophrenia.

I can tell you this, Vick’s high price lawyer didn’t do him any favors.  He got NOTHING for his money.  And I bet it was a lot of money.

boxing football nascar racing—all witness inhumane acts.  I wonder how many of the screamers yelling for Vick’s blood buy items from China. There people are treated much worse than pit dogs, and a misstep brings a bullet to the head.  2,000 coal miners are admitted to have died since 2007 began.  Where is America’s precious
moral outrage where their pocketbooks are concerned?

Here’s some articles on china briefly collected:
World Briefing | Asia: China: 50,000 Dogs Killed In Rabies Scare

Published: August 2, 2006

Mouding County in southwestern Yunnan Province has killed more than 50,000 pet dogs in five days in a government campaign ordered after three people died of rabies, news media reported. Only police and military dogs were spared, The Shanghai Daily reported, citing local news media. Dogs being walked were taken from their owners and beaten on the spot, the paper said. Other teams entered villages at night, creating noise to get dogs barking, and then beating them to death. Owners were offered the equivalent of 63 cents to kill their dogs before the teams were sent in.

or these dogs, killed because they were “bourgeois symbols”:

Chinese dog-lovers live in fear as cull claims thousands of pets
By David Eimer in Beijing
Published: 03 October 2005

The start of the Chinese Year of the Dog is just four months away, but in the southern city of Guangzhou thousands of frightened dog owners and their pets are lying doggo after local authorities intensified a crackdown on unregistered animals.

Dogs are being rounded up by the police and, in the past week, hundreds have been culled, some in front of their owners, by special dog-killing teams.

E-mails sent by anguished Guangzhou residents to the Hong Kong-based animal welfare group Animals Asia spoke of owners collapsing after their animals were put to death in front of them and of streets running with the blood of dead dogs. “The dog-killing team killed all the dogs they saw,” reported one witness. “Their blood made the street turn red and their owners fainted. The dog-killing team showed no mercy and said it was an order from the government.”

Of course, the Chinese do not show much mercy toward corrupt or even incompetent government officials either—hmm. Tempting—but no.

(I heard them on the news—shrill voices yelling dog killer—as if the spca wouldn’t thus qualify.  some seem not to think death cruel if it is out of sight.  but imagine the death row horror of the “animal shelter.”  Hah!!  I’ve seen the desperate looks of the animals waiting there.)  Every year 4 to 6 million animals put to death in the u.s. alone—they can’t even have the decency to know the correct number within 2 million!

If you get a chance read Adam’s Task—calling animals by name.  It’s by Vickie Hearne, my hero.  It’s my favorite book.

Also, check out the article in today’s NYTimes about the upturned palm in the Science section.  It’s a mistake in my opinion to imagine that overt cruelty is the worst we can do to a fellow creature.  Robbing them of life—sex-dirt-society—YES to be a member of a society-FREEDOM to live and see the sun and root out food and make a life and yes take responsibility and partake of the great chain of being—I personally would rather be given a chance to be a gladiator.

In sweden,  and in many other countries, farm animals are not treated in this fashion.  and there is food for all.  All it takes is a willingness to spend a few more pennies per pound, if the populance demands it.

did you know, that it is “cheaper” to kill chickens in America, ship them to china to be processed into their plastic shrouds, then shipped back to America to be sold?  This cheaper business is only in paper, not counting the cost in Chinese children, use of oil, global warming.

environmentally and long-run cheaper would mean local grass-fed animals.  Factory meat is only cheap on paper. (and that paper features ben franklin, to be sure. . . .)

i hope you don’t take this rant as anything other than trying to get something off of my own chest.  As in the case of “recycling” —Haha—our society seems more interested in appearances than results.  And a bee which does not go along with her hive has little hope. . . .

If the premise is that pets are the new kids in America, then it is only fair that more analogies be made between parenting children and “parenting” pets. By my quotes you can see that I do not view raising pets as parenting; I think that is an insult to parents, although perhaps it does call attention to parenting roles that rely on children’s friendship, love, companionship, steadfastness, fun, and teaching.

I agree with Anna Maria Johnson that her essay about Franny reflects Ginger Strand’s last line—much more beautifully than what Strand was capable of. Strand’s essay falls short by not looking at pet owners who are not part of the mega-industry. I think her essay is significant for examining this industry and questioning what drives it—although I don’t think she truly questions it.

The interesting questions raised—what are we teaching our children about nature and why do we have pets and what does a healthy realtionship with a pet look like—are yet to be answered. A note for Ms. Weisberg: I appreciate the sources you brought in, but I might add that China also limits the number of children a couple can have. It is commendable that they are addressing overpopulation—of all species—and pause for thought of the implication of limiting ALL species and not considering humans exempt.

I, too, live in SW Montana, and based on what I have observed or heard from folks with pets in other parts of the country, yes, we do have a different view of our pets in this area. It causes friction between newcomers and oldtimers. In general, oldtimers in this area eschew leash laws. In general, we—counting myself as an oldtimer—expect our animals to fit in based on a rapport we’ve established with them. Perhaps this does come from our closeness to nature and a respect and appreciation that generates for wild things to be as they are—for example, knowing that we can’t have bears in our backyards but attempting to give them their space as we keep ours; perhaps this comes from our long history of working dogs and their intelligence. Not just their duty to us, but their outright ability to think for themselves and surprise us by their wide range of emotions and decisions.

Ted Kerasote writes well in his new book about how freedom with a dog can enhance the human-dog connection. Kerasote is a Wyoming author, and he writes about what many dog owners have expressed: the better you treat the dog, the better he treats you. Well, that is kinda like parenting, isn’t it?

My eighteen-year-old dog has been central in my life. He is a not an accoutrement, unless dog hair has a new vogue. Nope, I’ve never invested in bling for him, but he does eat well, as do I, meaning organic. It was worth the extra time it took to get to know him and learn how to read his language as he did mine rather than slap a leash on him for ease of control and less frustration. I learned how to take him places and allow him time to fulfill his dog desires; he learned how to behave well enough in my world to get to go everywhere with me, which is part of what he wanted. Even people who adamantly do not like dogs have ended up favoring my mutt because he, in their words, “doesn’t act like a dog.” He doesn’t drool, slobber, lick, jump up, bark, pace, or interfere. By “not act like a dog,” neither they nor I mean that is what dogs are inherently like. Rather, that is what dogs that have been over-domesticated and over-bred or under-attended to act like. Kind of like kids no one pays attention to or kids who are over-controlled.

A healthy relationship with my pet? I respect him and he does me. I take time to know his personality. I enjoy his company. I make sure he exercises the right amount, eats well (which includes not too much fat or excess or catered palate—he never had people food until he was ten), and is socialized with people and all animals (and I recognize that I cannot socialize him with deer, nor would I try to; we work around that one when we run trails). I respect his solitude if he doesn’t like someone and wants to be in the other room: he is often a better judge of character than I am.

Mostly, I’ve learned everything I have learned about unconditional love, patience, tolerance, compassion, and care from this one dog. Those who work with horses often say the same is true: they cut through the linguistic crap or psychological games we humans maneuver. They read emotions and intentions clearly and respond directly. For this, we can all be grateful to learn more about ourselves and take these lessons from our pets to treat one another better—and our kids, too.

In my prescription, having pets doesn’t distance us from the wild, it brings us closer. A disdain or intolerance for pets—or perfuming and de-animalizing them—is acting as if humans are the only animal. Sharing a home with different species reminds us that we are only one of many, and we are gifted with the ability and responsibility to share the earth.

I’m writing my response to Ginger Strand’s article as I cross Puget Sound on a Washington State Ferry hauling horses and dogs (with a gas-guzzling truck and an expensive horse trailer)to a place where I can have a quality experience with them.

Ginger Strand wrote her article from the objective viewpoint of a journalist, she may not even be a pet owner. I write my response as an insider: veterinarian for 27 years(Dr Marty Becker was a classmate)and a dog and horse owner/trainer. I believe the humanization of pets is an aberration practiced by a minority of pet owners and is reflective of a sick, self-absorbed culture. It might satisfy some need in the “pet parent” but does nothing to address the real needs of the pet:exercise, training, companionship, weight control.

As a veterinarian, I encounter the full spectrum of pet owners, from those who consider their pets family and sometimes humanize them, to those that consider them a disposable commodity.The majority of pet owners fall somewhere inbetween these two extremes and their reasons for having pets are many and varied. A co-worker told me, “I resent the assumption that I have pets as a substitute for children. I have pets because I don’t like children.”

Pets give me the same spiritual lift that I get from spending time in a wild place and I like to share this experience with them.

In my ideal world I wouldn’t have to haul horses and dogs long distances on ferries and the interstate. We would be partners in survival: horses cutting cattle, plowing fields or providing transportation; dogs guarding and herding livestock. That would be the best life for all of us.

“He will never unfold the secrets of his heart; he will die, in some sense, a mystery. “

Yes but he, she, our pet(s) will unfold that mystery into our hearts—we ALL speak the same language there.

I am on a tight budget so those highpriced items are not mine to buy—nor am I interested in them—I DID manage to scrape together, beg borrow, $3,000 in the course of one year, for my cat’s Cancer surgeries—NO way would I have let her die a horrible death. At the same time I had to care for my other 2 cats and have 3 root canals in one month—I did it, no rhinestone collars involved. I would do it again if I had to—we have an obligation toward our pets, living creatures who depend on us and bring us much joy. And at times, I give small amounts—5, 10 dollars, to rescue groups because I know how hard they work for the animals—rescuing, medication, caring for, at their own expense.

My only wish is that those purveyors of high priced animal toys/beds/foods would give a small portion of their profits to those dedicated compassionate organizations staffed by people who rescue animals—animals hit by cars and left out to die (oh people—its brutal enough Out There on the streets for humans—please keep your pets indoors or behind a SAFE fence!!!), people who rescue and care for animals abandoned, not spayed, not neutered—who reproduce and live in misery (TNR works!! please support it!), and people who TRY so hard to promote Humane Education so our kids can grow up learning that pets are NOT animated disposable toys.

And let’s not forget those Third World Nations, where the price of a rhinestone-studded dog collar could feed a village—THEY TOO have pets who, like their human counterparts, live in squalor and ill health - it is time we did something for them too—a portion of the profits of the sale of that studded dog collar could go to International Animal Rescue sites as well. When you rescue and help the animals, in concert with other relief efforts going on,  you help the morale of those villagers as well.

We RESONATE with all of creation—They were here before We were—and their lives are no less precious than ours are - whatever we do for creation is felt by all Man"KIND”—let’s act in positive ways toward animals and the environment, and this will beget more compassion and consideration towards our fellow humans and help change this world (ever been in a vet’s office? notice how many people are smiling and talking to starngers with joy about their animals? This can extend to the Outside World too!).

Hopefully, with education, we can get more “moral elevation” so that watching (marine) aquarium fish WILL produce more stress when folks realize (and hopefully care) that almost ALL MARINE FISH in aquaria are taken from the wild: raped from reefs, with high mortality rates.  Even those that survive to get into people’s aquaria—and their potential progeny—are stripped from reefs around the world.  With all the stresses that coral reefs are under, targeted extirpation of “pretty” fishes by the pet trade should not be tolerated by a “morally elevated” society.

Following in the line of thought of the book “The Botany of Desire”, I wonder if pets are not a group of species, hard at work trying to adapt to the ever-expanding human-made environments. In modern times we humans see ourselves as separate from the evolutionary chain. But it is possible that our human-made environment is, as seen by the forces of evolution, just one more environment to adapt to. And pets are doing a fine job of ensuring their place in it. The love, companionship, laughter and all those valuable emotions that pets inspire in us, might well be what pet species are bringing to the table in an unusual but successful symbiosis.