On Pets
So, I've been reading about rabbits and rabbit care for the past few days as I try to decide whether or not I ought to buy a rabbit. And my conclusion from this reading is that no person, ever, should have a pet.
Reasons why people should never get a pet:
- Animals are living things, not objects. People tend to get pets because they desire them, rather than because they think the animal to be adopted needs care. This fundamentally shifts the mindset of the person from "How can I help this animal" to "How can this animal help me?" It also treats the pet as an object, a moving plush doll or some actualization of an idealized man-cat, man-dog, man-bird relationship when in reality the animal is a living being with its own needs, most of which do not involve you.
- You can't care for it. You, personally, can not care for an animal ideally and you will never be able to care for an animal ideally. Pets are always subject to the financial limitations of their owner as well as the limitations of the space and attention their owner can provide. Most animals, dare I say all animals, were not meant to be chained up in a back yard, kept in a cage, kept in an apartment, or kept in a glass cube full of water. These are not the ideal living spaces for these animals, so why anyone would ever place an animal into this situation willingly is beyond me. Unless, of course, they were treating the animal as an object and not a being unto itself.
- You don't know enough. Far too many people do not read or research the animals they desire to purchase. They encounter the animal, find it to be cute, and then purchase it without thinking through the situation. One example: a majority of cat owners use clay litter, but clay litter is the least ideal compound to use for litter boxes. People do not think through the animal's life span, food needs, litter needs, exercise needs, play needs, attention needs, or lifestyle needs before purchasing the animal. Because any individual who did think through all of these would realize that they are incapable of providing for all of these needs.
- You don't respect the animal. Human beings have a predilection for placing themselves above other life forms. People think they are better than or more advanced than other forms of life, which lead to the problems in pet care. People buy a bunny, decide it smells bad sometimes, and then toss the animal outside into a wire floor hutch because it inconveniences them. Nevermind the needs of the bunny, the needs of the human come first to the human, and the needs of the bunny, if they are ever considered, come last. This situation is compounded by people not understanding the needs of their pets or, more realistically, not caring about the needs of their pets.
- You cannot see into the future. Animals have life spans and most do not come equipped with off switches. Some fish can live for 30 years, rabbits can live for 10, healthy dogs and cats can life for 15, Birds can live for ever. A person standing in a pet store has no idea what their own future may hold and how this future could impact their desired pet and since human beings think of their selves before others the needs of the human will always over-ride the needs of the pet. Rabbit smells bad? Toss it outside. Moving to a "NO Pets" apartment? Give the dog or cat up for adoption. Lose interest? Toss the Turtle into a nearby lake. After all, it's just an animal.
End Rant.
13 comments:
we are all just objects in space.
also, no one should do anything, evar
Everything one might do is always, to some degree, a bad thing to do.
J, Does this mean that you're going to become a vegan?
How do you propose that domesticated dogs should exist then, if not under the care of humans, as that is the role they have evolved to fulfill? This is not to say that dogs are glorified parasites, but instead humans and dogs evolutional paths are intertwined as we relied on them and they rely on us.
I think domestication itself objectifies the animal so that it is no longer a being unto itself but rather an animal that serves a purpose for man. And once an animal or breed of animals have been domesticated there is a degree to which, I think, they depend on humans because humans have in a sense created them, or at least modified them in such a way as to make them reliant on humans. It's not like they are wild dogs which we train, but rather they are breeds of dogs which have been bred by humans for the purpose of serving humans or co-existing with them.
And that's where I take issue with the dog whisperer. Because he treats the dogs as subject to him, because in lots of ways they have been bred to be that. So because of what they are I think we have to understand them as beings unto their selves that rely on us, but that doesn't mean they are at our disposal to do with what we desire.
Buying a dog to play with it for a week and then chain it up in the back yard until it dies is probably not the best thing for the dog and does not respect it as a living being. But treating a dog as a living being that is subject to our whims...seems like a result of domestication. And I feel as if there is perhaps maybe a good way to do this within that context of domestication which is itself fundamentally...not "bad", but ideologically problematic because it takes wild beings and modifies them to the point where they are subject to humans.
Like, Libby couldn't have survived on her own because she would not have been able to obtain food unless there exists some sort of animal that can be loved to death. So she needed a human to provide for her. But probably, ideally, living in our kitchen was not the best life for her. And we took her for walks and let her outside and took her to the vet and etc., but I think that if we could construct a "best possible scenario" for dog care it wouldn't involve laying on a kitchen floor.
Must go back to teh workin. Credit card system stopped working.
OH NOES!
Two things.
First, Anthropological evidence has shown that dogs made the first step towards their own domestication, because a niche was available to fill as a creature that does menial work and and eats leftover scraps from a human, as canines are scavengers by nature. So humans did not create dogs, but instead dogs created themselves in the image of humans.
Secondly, while true sitting in your kitchen would not have been the ideal life for Libby, but living in a household around other living beings is, however. Dogs by nature are pack creatures, so a family to live with is a life style to which a dog will happily accustom itself to. The truly ideal life style for Libby would have been to also give her chores to do while living within a pack atmosphere.
Something I forgot before: Practicality.
One of the things that sites and books are great at is giving very serious and specific information about things, such as the idea chemical composition of rabbit litter. But one of the things they won't say is, "They chews your wires and can hop on your bed."
So from the websites I read I was inundated with the feeling that I could never make a rabbit happy. But the receptionist here who had a bunny told me that hers was happy to live in her closet and hop around her room.
So, there's that practical aspect too. Where a rabbit can live in a closet and a fish can live in a tank and a dog can live in a living room and be alright with it in spite of what the books and interwebs say.
I still think that lots of people get pets with the wrong mindset, and I don't think that is a contestable point. People who buy rabbits for their children for easter and then can't take care of them, or people who buy dogs and then chain them to a tree somewhere. But there probably is a practical level of pet ownership that people can attain if they pay attention.
Probably.
I agree with the fact that people buy pets with poor intentions, and concede this willingly. But I'm not sure if the majority do. I consider companionship to be good intention, and is a positive for both the person and the pet, in most cases, especially in the case of a dog. I am not however a fan of people who get exotic animals, or animals that are loners by nature for pets. I am a dog person though, so my opinions are a bit biased.
Yeah, some animals are suitable companions and others are not. And trying to get an animal to be something it isn't is, I think, the main problem.
What do you consider to be an "exotic" animal? Birds, frogs, ferrets?
Anthopologists and Archeologists have impressive imaginations...
i wish i could be one, but id never be able to fully take my work seriously.
This is exactly why I hate puppies.
Puppies wuv you, caleb.
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