Pet Mania

 The Problems of Pet Ownership in the U.S.

I’ll start this with a little story.  

Once upon a time an old Granpa fell on his hip and had to go to the hospital.  The Granpa was a few days away from turning 100.  He might have needed a hip replacement and surgery, with the possibility of infection and lung problems lying in the hospital.  So it seemed dire for the old man. His daughter, age 66, decided to drive up from Texas to see her father in the hospital and perhaps celebrate his 100^th birthday.  She never made it because, ostensibly, she was concerned about where to board her two rambunctious dogs.  So she turned her car around at midpoint, somewhere in Oklahoma or Kansas, and went back home.  Now Granpa did make it, with or without his daughter and her dogs, and celebrated his century birthday.   

1.           67% of Americans own a pet.

2.           Meat eating:  “…the roughly 163 million pet cats and dogs in the United States eat about a quarter of the meat produced in the country, reports Karin Brulliard for The Washington Post. All this food comes at a cost. Okin estimates it's responsible for greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 64 million tons of carbon dioxide.”

3.           Repeat:  Dogs and cats create 64 million tons of CO2 and methane a year.

4.           U.S. pets consume 19% of the calories that U.S. citizens do. 

5.           Animals euthanized per year in U.S.: 1.5m (ASPCA) to 3m (PETA).    

6.           Amount of money spent on pets annually in the U.S.: $124B. Seems low.  Dolly Parton has come up with a pet clothing lines featuring rhinestones!  It is called "Doggy Parton."  There is now a restaurant in San Francisco that serves $75 'tasting' menus for dogs.

7.           Amount of money spent just on pet medical care: Apx. $1.05B. 

8.           Pet shit in landfills:  5.1 million tons of feces.  This also produces methane and no real way to recycle has been found.

9.           House and feral cats kill 1.3B to 4B wild birds per year in the U.S.  Another cause of disappearing bird species.

10.       Then there are the brutalized animals, exotic pets imported into the U.S. and kitten and puppy mills. 660,000 dogs are from U.S. mills per year, for instance.  The "Tiger King" should have been officially mauled and his animals repatriated.

11.       PETA estimates there are 70M homeless animals in the U.S. at any one time.  During recessions and higher unemployment, this number increases.  Perhaps they live with a houseless person, perhaps not.  Seems high but you get the point.

12.       Many brands of pet food are low quality or toxic, so now pets are being fed foods that humans could eat, mostly meat.

13.       People preferring a dog or cat to relationships with real people: 40% of married women claim they get more emotional support from their pet than a husband.  Other studies have shown that U.S. persons generally favor pets over humans.

14.       Pets are a substitute for human contact, perhaps a symptom of alienation and isolation in society.  Watch them walk their dogs.  

15.       Do you think your pet is ‘free’ and a ‘family’ member’ – and not really in a very nice jail?  Or a terrible one, depending on the owners.

16.       Would you want to wear a leash and collar and be kept in an apartment or house, to be let out 1, 2 or if lucky, 3 times a day?  Or be left alone for the day?  That is the life of the majority of dogs, the most popular pet.  I guess it is better than living under a tree, but perhaps not.

17.       It is rare that these animals are used as workers – sheep herding, ratting, sled-dogs, mousing, hunting, guarding, seeing-eye, medical comfort animals, etc. - as their main purpose.

18.       What is the role of pet ‘ownership’ in also seeing animals as a 'thing' - a food source, as clothing, in zoo and aquarium cages, as racing or performing beasts for a sack of feed or a tin of sardines?

19.   After the pandemic, 'returns' to pet shelters are massive due to animal costs, time constraints and stress.  It is sort of like taking a return back to Target, but not quite...

20.       Pets at this level are environmentally unsustainable.

21.       Pets fit into the narrative of the domination of nature by humans.

Before you all start screaming at me, I’ve had dogs, hamsters and fish, but none for years now. I watched them all die.  I enjoy dogs and cats, but realize something else is going on, on a far larger scale than my enjoyment of a smart, friendly Schnauzer.

P.S. - The Guardian has finally started to question the whole obsession with keeping pets:  https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/sep/13/the-case-against-pets-is-it-time-to-give-up-our-cats-and-dogs

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 15 year archive, using these terms:  "Inconspicuous Consumption," "The Vanishing Face of Gaia" (Lovelock); "Guns, Germs and Steel" (Diamond); "Fear of the Animal Planet," "The Emotional Lives of Animals," "The Sixth Extinction," "Vegan Freak," "When the Killings Done" (Boyle); "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," "This Land." 

Red Frog

September 6, 2022