When my last pet died of natural causes, several years ago, it wasn’t hard for me to do the right thing. I knew then that I would never again use an animal, or anybody for that matter, to fill the void or find a sense to my often boring and fastidious life. I’ll take up basket weaving instead. At least that way, I won’t do any harm.
Domestication is not a finality. Animals are being domesticated every day with the very same techniques that were used at the onset. It is an ongoing process. If you stopped controlling them for a while, your nicely civilized and subdued pets would revert back to some of their less-welcome natural habits before you knew it. This is not to say, however, that they could survive on their own. Some rare ones do, but because they are so denatured, most cannot. So it would be absurd to set them free on principle, and this is not what I am advocating. Also, this would cause insurmountable environmental problems for our own species. However, if collectively we chose to stop buying into it, domestication would cease to exist. It’s a simple question of supply and demand.
There is every reason in the world to conclude that our use of animals in these modern times is unnecessary, and even dangerous for our own survival. In the present ecological and demographic context, and considering what we now know about the true nature of animals and the devastating effects of our current lifestyle, it would truly be the worst mistake in the history of mankind, for both humane and pragmatic reasons, to continue treating animals as slaves. There is a strong link between our treatment of animals and our treatment of people and the environment. This long-awaited change of attitude would therefore be beneficial to all.
Adoption from a shelter is certainly a more conscientious way of exploiting a pet, but unless we also deal with the core issues, it just feeds the problem viciously. Puppy mills and lack of sterilization are not the root causes of the surplus pet problem. And we are all accessories to the fact the very instant we get a pet, no matter where we get it and how we treat it. Animals are certainly paying the toll. Millions of unwanted pets are destroyed each year by the mushrooming business of pounds and recycling outfits in disguise, euphemistically called “animal shelters” or “humane societies.” And millions of others are cruelly exploited under the auspices of kindness.
For every animal saved, countless others are handed a death sentence, or worse. Every animal on a leash, or lavishly displayed on the PETA website or on the cover of one of Ingrid Newkirk’s many books on pets for instance, is a publicity board which implicitly states: “The exploitation of others (nature, people, and animals) for our sole pleasure and comfort is morally right, natural, legitimate, and irrevocable.”
Is it really the case though?
And if not, when will we change?
How many animals must we adopt, how many more studies, forums, laws, reforms, protests, and campaigns must we orchestrate before we realize that what we are doing to pets is not better than what we are doing to laboratory animals, farm animals, zoo animals and the like?
To paraphrase Patrick West, author of Conspicuous Compassion. Why sometimes it’s cruel to be kind, a book I strongly recommend to any would-be animal lover, if you do genuinely care about animals, don't just adopt an animal, become a vegetarian, wear an empathy ribbon, or give money to a pound or PETA. If you want to stop animal abuse, leave your ego at home, get to know yourself a little better, ask yourself why you really need an animal, and more important, consider your motives for helping them, and the real consequences of your words and actions. Most of all, next time you profess that you care about animals, try to look at the facts behind the good intentions. More often than not, the only animal you really care about is yourself and your bank account.
In the end, when all is said and done, do you really think children will learn how to love and be better human beings by doing the strange things advocated with such enthusiasm by Dr. Boris Levinson the founder of modern zootherapy, advice wholeheartedly condoned by Peter Singer who sees in bestialism the end of specism?
“Let us very briefly consider the psychological characteristics of pets, which permit them to become objects and collaborators in our sexual activity. Our handling and conditioning of our pets make it easy for them both to submit to our sexual drives and to enjoy participating in them. Take the dog, for example. When a puppy is taken away from the bitch at the relatively early age of 4 or 5 weeks, made to live exclusively with people and denied the companionship of other dogs, it may become imprinted on human beings and regard its master as a preferred sex mate. Furthermore, dogs mature sexually at 6 to 9 months of age and begin to exhibit sexual behavior, which may be exciting to some pet owners. Some children are led into sexual activity in this manner. Dogs which have been adopted at an early age are easily trainable and may be conditioned for whatever purpose their master has in mind. Lap dogs, for example, are easily taught to engage in cunnilingus. Furthermore, some dogs are easily excited from contact with menstruating women. […] For a child masturbation with an animal is to be preferred to solitary masturbation.”
These bizarre ideas follow quite naturally from the concept of zootherapy. The immorality of making a pet out of an animal opens the door to every conceivable type of abuse.
References:
Peter Singer, « Heavy Petting », Nerve Magazine, mars-avril 2001: www.nerve.com; Levinson Boris. “Ecology of the Surplus Dog and Cat.” Chicago, Ill: Conference. 1974. 18-31; “Pets and personality development.” Psychological reports. 42. 1978. 1031-1038; Pet-Oriented child psychotherapy, 2e edition, Charles C. Thomas. 1998; see also on bestiality a widespread occurrence: Beetz and Podberscek ed. Bestiality and Zoophelia: Sexual relations with animals. Purdue University Press. 2005; Interview with Amily-James Koh-Bela author of La prostitution Africaine en Occident. Ccinia éditeur (2004). Les Francs-Tireurs. TéléQuébec. Nov. 2006; Dekker Midas. Dearest pet: On bestiality. Verso books. 2000.