Thinking about the relationship between humans and animals I started to wonder why pets have always been present in societies throughout history. Of course there are certain animals which serve a purpose to us be it; transport, guidance, entertainment etc. However, I am referring to pets that we take care of in our house or back yard. Why do so many people bring pets into their home as though they are another member of the family? Well for many people they are.
Take dogs for example, there are 74 million owned dogs in the United States, about 70% of these dog owners refer to themselves as “mommy” or “daddy” as though they are the dog’s parent. Well in many ways they are, a dog owner has feed it, bath it, walk it and give it almost as much attention as their own son or daughter. Taking into account the costs we must pay to own a healthy dog, one may ask; is it really worth it? Well apparently the answer is yes!
There have been studies which show that pets in families with a young child tend positively increases the child’s communication skills causing them to become more social younger in life. As for adults, pets such as dogs and cats tend to provide a certain companionship especially if the adult is single. They also provide young adults with practice for parenting and often fill a void which is present in a childless home.
Personally I have always found that those who own pets have always had a more positive attitude in day to day life. I definitely feel that we (humans) often grow tiresome of human interaction and in result turn to animals.
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I really agree with what you said in the blog. Sometimes our interactions with other humans become too burdensome so it is nice to have our pets to turn to. I have never understood why some people don't like animals, I feel they offer a relationship much different than that of our relationships with other humans. I also feel we need both of these relationships to fully be happy in the world.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with what you had to say here. I've had three dogs. The oldest one, Cody, recently passed away. In my family we definitely consider our dogs as part of the family, and our often guilty of feeding them people food and letting them up on the couch. I considered Cody as a best friend and since he's been gone it is just like a family member has disappeared. Something I find interesting is that we have alway given our dogs normal human names: Cody, Joey, and Maggie.. nothing like cocoa or muffy. I wonder is this is because we value are pets so much and treat them just as siblings.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what was said throughout this post. Our relationships with our pets are some of the most important in my eyes. I think we consider animals to be more of a part of nature than we are as humans but I feel that domestic pets are closer to us as humans than that of a wild animal is to nature.
ReplyDeleteI think that we consider our pets as the 'ultimate people' meaning that whatever quality that we want to see in other people we can project that image or ideal onto the pet. Personally I love having my pets around. If I feel upset and just want someone to talk my pets are the best listeners plus they can make you feel better or relax you. Whenever you look into their big eyes or they do something little or playful you forget whatever was bothering you and almost instantly feel better.
ReplyDeleteGoing with Julie's comment about names, I live on a farm where we have cows and they are having calves now yet typical cows name like 'Bessy' don't even get consider since it makes them seem to much unlike us. As I was saying earlier I think that since we project human qualities on to our pets that is why we can't bring ourselves to name them typical animal specific names.