No More Dead Dogs

"People pull their punches, refer to dogs' love with words such as loyalty, obedience, or even submissiveness, but it is love." (421)

http://blogs.psychsterdata.com/yjgm/2010/01/the-truth-about-cats-and-dogs-the-psychology-of-pet-preferences.html

I've seen such a reaction many times before.  People fear using the word "love" because that's all too much of a human emotion.  We are in the paradoxical position of wanting to believe our pets love and understand us, but denying that animals can understand things happening around them (read: slaughter houses).  I know personification is believed to be the transference of human qualities to objects or animals who we believe can't possibly feel like we do, but why?  Why do we assume emotions (I'm not talking about neural impulses like pain or pleasure, I mean the combination of physical sensation and thought) are a purely human characteristic?  There's no evidence to support that.  Animals feel affection just as we do. Some species, Ravens among them, mate for life and refuse to leave a dying family member.  They grieve.  Just as we feel pain at the loss of a person held dear, they know the pain of death.  Humanity is too vain in thinking we were gifted above all.  Sure, we have dexterous thumbs to create tools and reasoning capacity beyond other species, but that doesn't relate at all to the ability to feel.  Any pet owner can express how their animal responds to affection not on a primitive level, but with understanding and love.  Let's not be afraid to say so.

And to be honest, the loss of that love can tear up someone inside- regardless of species.

"Pay attention to me! I didn’t ask you to bring me into this house. You voluntarily decided to be my caretakers." (web http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/30209/web/Sana/Websites/P2/p2.htm)

Pet owners have a responsibility- to love and care for their animals.  Years of breeding and domestication have made many types of animals dependent on humans to provide certain types of care.  For some reason, we tend to forget that.  We think that it’s “ok” to just stop taking our dogs for walks or cleaning the fish bowl.  How does that even remotely make sense?  And what’s worse is the final abandonment.  How often have you heard of people releasing their pet rabbits or fish “into the wild”?  It’s a statement that completely lacks sense.  The rabbits we breed are not of the wild variety.  They have bright coats and soft fur and dulled reflexes.  They may have a few natural instincts left but not enough to keep them from being hit by a car or swooped up by a hawk.  A fish is little better off.  They are small, used to being fed synthetic food, and once again-brightly colored.  There’s no reason they should last any longer than a rabbit.  In reality, being “released” is just a euphemism for sending them to their death.  It is the greatest betrayal of a pet owner.  We, who assume we are all-powerful, take the weak cowardly way out of responsibility and push them off like they’re someone else’s problem.  I sometimes wonder if people should get licenses to become pet owners.  Then, maybe we could prevent some of the abuse, neglect, and abandonment these animals face.

http://www.humanesocietyofmarioncounty.com/index_files/page0006.htm