Do you remember your first dog or cat? Perhaps even your first boa constrictor? Whatever your preference, pets can play a huge role in our lives, even becoming full-fledged family members. But is domestication really in an animal’s best interest? Does pet ownership create a loving bond between human and animal, or does it only serve our own interests?
Friends, I am the Senior VP of Communications for the largest and most effective animal organization in America. Every month, sometimes several times a month, I am confronted with these kinds of wildly ill-informed accusations – in blogs, in web postings, in newsletters and even in newspapers, which should know better. Others throughout the organization are similarly distracted. By sheer repetition, our foes count on winning over the gullible.
I regret the time wasted from meaningful work by having to reassure people that The HSUS has not veered one fraction of a degree from its founding commitment to companion animals. We celebrate them every day. We defend them everyday. When we learn that they are in trouble, we send teams to rescue them.
It often interests visitors to know that 10% of the work-force in my Communications section happens to be dogs. That’s right we don’t just talk about our love of pets. They come to work with us, at least the dogs do. And, oh yes, Louie too – he acts enough like a dog that we quietly allow him in the office even though he’s a cat. Turn me upside down and dog biscuits fall out of my suit pockets.
So, should we have pets? Of course. Pets are creatures with whom we share a world, and we rejoice in their companionship. You don’t have to anthropomorphize to recognize that the feelings are returned. If we are wise enough to see, they teach us about humility and empathy and loyalty. Their eyes hold the spark of life, the same as ours. Let us be close and cherish each other always.
If I may at this point lean on a pair of pioneering animal rights philosophers who lived a century ago, Henry Salt and J. Howard Moore. Here is Salt: “When we have grasped the great central fact about animals, that they are in the full sense our fellow-beings, all else will follow for them; and we shall know, and act upon the knowledge, that in the words of Howard Moore, author of that memorable book The Universal Kinship: "They are not conveniences but cousins."
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