The Modern-Day Relationship Between Humans And Dogs

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82 – October, 2024

By Amy Fernandez

This morning, I was in line at my local McDonalds (and I like this one because dogs are always welcome). Maybe they’re bending the rules a bit with this laissez-faire policy but I’ve yet to see anything but truly positive reactions from the customers. Standing in line is boring, especially early a.m. on the way to work. A dog or two is guaranteed to lighten the vibe. And that’s the point, which really came into focus when I started chatting with the guy behind me. He was cradling a fluffy, doodle type dog in his arms. He noticed me looking and invited me to say hello. That’s all it took to unleash his story. This puppy is his first dog and it was clearly a love affair; he was getting breakfast for both of them. He confided that after years of listening to his dog owning friends rave about their fabulous pets, he never understood the big deal. Now, he gets it. Okay, he is a fairly young guy, but it’s a strong statement to describe something as the best decision of your life. Mainly, he regretted all his dogless years. He’s in this for life, no question about that.

That got me thinking about the strangely important role that fast food has come to play in the dog ownership story. Obviously, it’s not the healthiest dietary choice, but when you’ve got a sick dog, a picky dog or just an ancient dog losing interest in food, it frequently works like a charm. In fact, I don’t think it’s a stretch to call the fast food drive-thru an embedded feature of the modern dog lifestyle. How often does the car in front of you have a dog riding shotgun?

With all this in mind, I read a recent Times editorial bemoaning the sadly diminished quality of life endured by pampered pets, “Are We Loving Our Pets to Death?” The story opened with the usual eye-popping statistics detailing the number of Americans owning pets, the big bucks we spend on them and the perceived ethical repercussions of all this. A main voice in the conversation was Dr. Jessica Pierce, an animal welfare bioethicist.

The article touched on a few big issues, some of which seemed rather tangential to the topic, primarily the popularity of French Bulldogs. People love their Frenchies and no amount of negative messaging seems to be making a dent in this trend. A major component of that pessimistic reporting has been the very loud contention that the breed has been “manufactured” in complete defiance of nature. But is that really true?

Click here to read the complete article
82 – October, 2024

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Posted by AnthonyA on Oct 7 2024. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.