A modern trend which is gathering pace is that caregivers are treating their cat and dog companions as little humans and in doing so are far more inclined to put them through excessive medical treatment when the more humane choice would be to euthanise them. That sounds a bit PETA-esque. The slightly angry advice comes from a UK group of veterinary professionals and academics called EthicsFirst.
They are campaigning against what they describe as excessive medical treatment. Relating to companion animals as little humans, often toddlers (anthropomorphisation) is “Disneyfication” according to Professor Eddie Clutton who lectures veterinary anaesthesiology at Edinburgh University.
He said: “Animals are capable of quite tremendous emotional experiences, but they will not experience them in the same way as human beings. They experience life in real time”. Yes, I get that. They tend to stay in the present. Something we can learn from them actually.
He added: “It is one thing for a grandfather to consent to chemotherapy because he knows it’s worth, and another to subject a dog to it which does not have the capacity to hope. I have had people say, ‘Can you just keep them alive until Christmas?’. Do you think your dog understands Christmas?”
The point he is making, which perhaps doesn’t need clarifying, is that people put their dogs through these operations because they are thinking of themselves and if it is true, it is selfishness at the expense of the companion animal. There is a permanent tendency to do this in all aspects of the animal-human relationship including the adoption process.
He further adds that “People feel they owe it to their family member to do everything they can, to pay for the most expensive treatment, to try everything. They can be part of the family but not treated as a human, which actually detracts from what they really want – to be catered for as a dog or a cat.”
I presume, incidentally, that the cats and dogs who are put through expensive medical treatment, are normally insured under one of the many pet health insurance plans.
More advanced veterinary machinery and therefore more advanced treatments pushes up the price of insurance premiums and probably pushes up the price of veterinary treatment generally which in turn might prevent people from taking their companion animal to a vet.
I have recently read that about 1.3 million companion animals in the UK are not registered with a veterinarian.
The Times journalist, Louise Eccles, cites as an example the fact that 47% of dog owners share a bed with the dog. The figure climbs to 55% for first-time owners. The numbers come from a survey by Dogs Trust of 230,000 owners.
In another study by the pet food brand Natures Menu, 73% of UK companion animal care givers, celebrated their dog or cat’s first birthday. This included singing Happy Birthday to them and buying them a present.
An issue that needs to be explored is the fact that humanising a companion animal does have some beneficial spin-offs. And of course, detriments. But the benefits are obvious namely that to anthropomorphise a cat helps to engender affection for the companion animal.
On the downside, people start doing unacceptable things such as dressing up their dogs in jumpers or providing them with vegan diets. Some might carry their small dog around in their arms as they promenade through the park rather than walking him on a lead. This is treating a dog as an accessory, but it can harm them.
The experts say that doing this for long periods can cause obesity and inflammation of the joints. It can hinder their ability to cope with their environment. I suspect that this suggestion is made because they are being protected by the human caregiver all the time to the extent that they lose the ability to deal with these things emotionally.
Also, when people hug their cat or dog it can be a little too much for the companion animal. A lot of cats for example don’t like to be hugged or even picked up and some will respond negatively to being petted too much. If people do this, they do it for themselves primarily as much as they do or more so than for their cat or dog.
Dr. Polly Taylor, a member of EthicsFirst and on the European Board of Veterinary Specialisation said that people don’t take on board enough the fact that their cat or dog is going to die before they do (most times). She says that there is “a tendency to treat them like a child and do their utmost to stop the animal dying”.
A couple of years ago I wrote about Taylor Swift treating her cats as babies or little infants. Perhaps she is the classic case or certainly the most high-profile case of what these experts are criticising.
My thoughts are that they are essentially correct but there’s nothing wrong in humanising your cat or dog provided that at all times you remind yourself that you are living with a domestic animal with their own desires, instincts and motivations.
And another point worth making is this: some people who live with cats tend to relate to them as dogs. They are different animals 😎😉. If you do this, you have misplaced expectations which might lead to disappointment which in turn might lead to a fragility in the relationship between person and animal.
Dogs’ facial fast twitch muscles provides them with expressions which entice us
