Alright Pet?

Animals are cute, right? With their ickle fluffy faces, and the funniest things they do. Especially the ones we keep as pets – cats, dogs, rabbits, hamsters, that sort of thing. Dogs and cats in particular can be of great benefit to those with physical or mental health problems – they can literally save lives in some cases – and any pet is great for teaching kids about caring for animals. Practically everyone thinks that keeping pets is a good idea, even if they don't have one or don't even like animals much themselves. But whenever something is agreed upon by almost everyone, it's likely that we've stopped thinking about whether it's actually alright or not, so it's a thing worth having a good think about.

So why do we keep pets? For the most part, it seems to be all about a desire to have something to look after. There's a couple of interesting things about that. One is the having part, the other is the looking after. Let's start with having. A pet is something you own. It's another living creature that's very probably weaker and less intelligent than you. And you own it: decide what it does, what it eats, where it lives, and ultimately if it lives. Sounds like a certain desire for control is involved here. Why would you want that? It's hard to say for sure, and of course everyone is different, but often when somebody tries to seize control of something external, it's because they've lost control of something more internal (or they think they have). Like when your to-do list spirals out of control, so you spend all day putting your DVDs in alphabetical order. (I'm not the only one who does things like that, right?) If you felt you had more control of your own life, would you need to own another's?

Now, what about the looking after? Nurturing is nice, right? Makes you a good person? Well maybe, up to a point. But how much of the desire to nurture is just the desire to be needed? Because as long as something or someone needs you, you have a role to fulfil. This is often said about children, and the same seems to be true of pets; their needing you to do things for them gets you out of bed in the morning, and gives you ways to occupy your day. But do you want to measure your value against the needs of others? You may do, but it's worth at least asking yourself the question, in case you have other things in mind. Like valuing yourself for who you are on your own terms, not something or somebody else's, just for example.

The other thing about nurturing, besides the desire to be needed, is that it projects an image of you as a nurturing kind of person. One Who Nurtures. A Nice Caring Person. And as a society, we are a bit suspicious of those who aren't interested in animals, and we think “animal-lover” is a good label to have. Its connotations are decidedly cuddly and rose-tinted. But perhaps respecting animals is more important than wanting to cuddle them. Wild species benefit from minimal human intervention, and we've bred that desire to be left alone out of our domestic species. That's partly tied up with using them for work, but it also sounds a little like a desperate and needy cry, echoing down the centuries: “Be my friend! If you won’t be my friend now, I'll reshape your children and your children's children until they love me”. The wolf and the tiger would roar in defiance, and maybe they have a point. Perhaps respect means just letting them be.

So is it wrong to keep pets? I'm really not sure on this one. There's something profoundly distasteful about the desire to own a living creature, and getting a kick out of its dependence on you. On the other hand, we have bred domestic species to the point where the desire for this relationship is mutual, so usually no-one seems to be suffering. And proximity to animals can bring huge benefits for our well-being, as I mentioned at the beginning. So perhaps the conclusion is not that we shouldn't keep pets, but that examining our reasons for doing so can tell us a lot about ourselves, both as a society and as individuals. Whether what you learn makes you want to change is, to a large extent, up to you.