On this last Sunday of 2024, I wish to urge readers to consider adopting a dog or cat in the New Year.
At this time, we are all determinedly listing our New Year’s Resolutions (many of which we will break within the first week!). Let me include one that is definitely worthwhile, and is a winner – adopting a pet.
I would like to share with you some thoughts on human- animal relationships, which in turn might move you in the direction of adopting a pet from the many shelters (e.g., GSPCA, PAWS FOR A CAUSE, Rosewood, Tails of Hope, among others) for the New Year.
Last week, we discussed Tender Loving Care at Christmas and the special friendship between pets and humans, which has scientifically been proven to improve our mental and physical health. I have often argued that the education a child receives from observing the pregnancy, birth process, and the mother dog’s care for its young is something that money cannot buy and textbooks cannot give.
In one very interesting study of heart attack patients at the University of Maryland, it was revealed that those who owned pets were more likely to be alive one year after the heart attack than those who did not. The researchers also found that the simple act of petting a cat or dog consistently lowered a heart patient’s blood pressure.
This affinity that humans have for dogs did not just arrive. It has evolved from that very time, tens of thousands of years ago, when humans decided to cultivate, befriend, breed, and love wild forebears of the present-day dog. I know someone who believes that the whole human-dog association started with the canine (feline also?) conning us. They observed our behaviour, and they decided that mankind looked like it was going somewhere upwards in the evolutionary tree. They latched on to us, and mimicked our behavioural patterns so that we would believe they were easy to get along with. For that, we would feed them and keep them warm. In turn they gave us, then and today, immeasurable loyalty and protection. Indeed, it seems that compelling evidence is emerging that dogs and cats have figured out how to join the community of an entirely alien species; it is in itself evidence of their sophisticated social competence.
I know that, as a scientist, I should not be even thinking of attributing human characteristics to dogs and cats; you know, like feelings. Well, the scientists’ code is beginning to change. Researchers are now seeing what every dog (and cat) owner knew all along: dogs especially do exhibit the human characteristics of grief, envy, jealousy, anger, rage, bellicosity, love, hate, guilt, remorse, happiness, resentfulness, anxiety, fear, contentment, deceit, pride, arrogance, shyness, bravery, kindness, willingness to help, a desire to make the human happy, recklessness, sadness, depression, vexation, (e.g. at being blamed wrongfully), gluttony, malice (aforethought?), low self-esteem, laziness, greed, stubbornness, playfulness (including engaging in pranks), selective forgetfulness, vengefulness, boredom, communicativeness using the eyes/voice, flirtatiousness, coyness, loyalty, protectiveness.
I’m sure I have left out some important characteristics, but I’m equally sure that one of you would point out my omission.
A professor in Animal Psychology, Alexandra Horowitz, wrote a seminal tome called “Inside of a Dog”. It became a bestseller when published in 2010. Here is what she wrote:
“In learning how to study the behaviour of animals, I was taught and adhered to the scientist’s mantra for describing actions: be objective; do not explain a behaviour by appeal to a mental process when explanation by simpler processes will do; a phenomenon that is not publicly observable and confirmable is not the stuff of science. These days, as a professor of animal behaviour, comparative cognition, and psychology, I teach from masterful texts that deal in quantifiable fact. They describe everything, from hormonal and genetic explanations for the social behaviour of animals, to conditioned responses, fixed action patterns, and optimal foraging rates in the same steady, objective tone”.
Then she added: “And yet”. What came after those two words was the confession that, traditionally, science — as practised and deified in texts — rarely addresses pet owners’ experiences of living with, and attempting to understand the minds of, our companion animals. Since then, a lot more objective studies have been, and are being, carried out and shared with the public in easy-to-read articles. Only relatively recently, the Scientific American (May/June 2015 issue) carried an in-depth cover story on “Why we love pets and why they love us — the science behind the bond.” It is quite a revealing treatise.
What does all of this mean? There should be less trepidation and worry when we go into a shelter to choose a companion animal as a complement to our family. I assure you that our society would benefit in the long term with more kind, compassionate and responsible persons.
Wishing you and your pet-owning, animal-loving families all the very best for 2024 and beyond.
Please be kind to our pets tonight, and protect them from the great stress they experience due to the noise of firecrackers, squibs, etc. Keep them indoors, secure them in a cosy part of your home, distract them with toys and treats, and keep a watchful eye on them.
