The Great Divide

Last week, you might have read my post about how I had come to a crossroads, and was now about to write a series of posts about animals and how our actions affect them both positively and negatively. I also promised to write this in a way that wasn’t condescending or preachy, because we all know how annoying that can be. So I hope you will bear with me and take what I write with your own interpretation. I also hope you will share some of your thoughts with me in the comments so we can have a constructive dialougue about this.

PETS

 For many of us, having pets is one of the most enjoyable experiences in our lives. I have never met anyone who doesn’t enjoy coming home from a long day and having your dog wag its tail and unconditionally love you. Or maybe you aren’t a dog person, but the sight of your cat emerging from their insanely difficult day of napping to come over and give you a meow melts your heart. Whatever it is, pets are a large part of our daily lives. In fact, over 163 million American homes have one or more pets, and we spend over $40 billion on them annually.

For most of us, the word “pets” conjures up our own experiences of a happy animal who loves to be with us. They sleep on a nice bed, eat healthy food, and otherwise have a pretty good life. Sure, they may have to put up with things like waiting for us while we work, or not always getting a walk when you are sick or tired, but they have shelter, companionship, and someone to take them to the vet when they get sick or injured.

Looming on the other side of this, however, are some fairly startling statistics. Each year between three and four million dogs and cats are euthanized simply because they cannot find a home. This is only the reported number of “humane deaths” at animal shelters – many reports put the number much higher when you begin to consider the number of deaths that aren’t reported or included from industries such as racing and breeding facilities. In addition, many animals are left alone for long periods of time without food or water, stolen and sold toanimal research facilities, or used as bait in dog-fighting facilities. Even worse are the millions of domestic animals that are accidentally caught in traps used to kill animals for fur. (*Warning – Link contains graphic images.) There are also a staggering amount of dogs and cats used to create fur for the fashion industry. You can read more about this horrific industry here. (*Warning – Not for the faint of heart.)

 Going further, we see examples in our everyday lives of people who view animals as objects that are to be owned and controlled with no regard to their feelings, emotions, or well-being. National sports starsand hip-hop artists highlight and promote their abuse to our younger generations as well as reinforce the thought that animals are simply property for humans. We see examples of people who hoard animals, and people who simply let their pets go when they grow beyond the “cute” stage. A quick look through the Craigslist pet sectionwill show you hundreds of people who simply cannot keep their pet because they are moving, or having a child, or can’t control them anymore. As one user put it, didn’t you think of these things before you got your pet?

I am not telling you all of these things to be depressing – as Kerry sometimes points out, I can be a bit of a Debbie Downer. My point is that all of us who read this website are committed to a more sustainable world. A world where we have better air and food, better living conditions for those who are less fortunate than us. I consider our pets family members. They have thoughts, and feelings, and are concerned for me as much as I am for them. They are part of my everyday life. So it’s understandable that I have a hard time when people say, “It’s just an animal”. It is like they have forgotten that we are animals too.

While I am still reading and learning as much as I can about our connection to our pets, and truly formulating my opinions on how we interact with them as a culture, my first question would be, how would people feel if it was socially acceptable to treat children and other people like we do animals? I may have gotten all weapy eyed over the blind dog, but how can you not call this guy’s dog his family? Who else does he have in this world? If we are tuly striving for a more sustainable society, I believe one of the first places we have to start is by addressing these types of issues.

“The measure of a society can be how well its people treat its animals.”~Mahatma Gandhi