Keeping pets: close but not too close, please
Pet owners often have feelings of great affection towards their pets and treat them with loving care, as they do their families. Is this a bad thing? The answer is that it depends on the degree and nature of this loving care.
It is perfectly acceptable for a person to be exceptionally fond of an animal, and to treat it accordingly. This is particularly understandable when the pet owner is an older person who lives alone and is lonely. Indeed, medical research suggests that lavishing love on a pet may prolong an elderly person’s life or preserve their health and, of course, the pet gets a very good home.
Also, it is regarded as a good thing for a child to have a pet to take care of. It is thought to teach the child a sense of responsibility and to show affection. On the other hand, people who abuse others in their adulthood are often found to have abused animals in their childhood.
The problems arise when owners are too indulgent to pets. It is all very well for owners to give pets a few treats now and then, but if they are given food treats too frequently, pets can easily become too fat. Some cats and dogs are, by nature, quite greedy, and animal obesity, like human obesity, can lead to major health problems. Also, owners are not doing their pets any favour when they give them food designed for humans. The owner may love chicken in a spicy sauce and cream-filled chocolate cake, but these are very bad for the pet’s digestive system.
The over-indulgent pet owner often does not like the idea of their pet sleeping in a basket, however comfortable, downstairs and the pet is often to be found sharing their bed. This practice is very unhygienic and it should not be encouraged. Letting a pet sit on the best armchair just before an important guest sits there is not such a good idea either, especially when the pet is pale-coloured and the guest is wearing a dark suit.
It is one thing to treat an animal with exceptional love and care; it is quite another to treat the animal as though it were a human being. That is the line that must not be crossed, and yet it is quite frequently crossed. You will find some pet owners even dressing their dogs as though they were dolls, encasing them in knitted coats when they have perfectly warm coats of their own, and sometimes tying up their hair with ribbons.
Treating animals like humans can have a very bad effect on them, and not just on their health. Under the influence of such treatment, some dogs begin to see themselves as the leader of the pack, with their owners playing a lesser role. They can become aggressive or develop other behavioural problems.
By all means, let people treat their pets with exceptional kindness and love. However, they must remember that an animal is an animal and not a human being. It must not be treated like one, for the sake of both the pet and the owner.
