Pets as persons
Published by Yazad Jal June 26th, 2004 in Culture and SocietyWe have two dogs in the family (both bitches) and I love them. Well, not as much as the others in my family who spoil them rotten. I am often the only dog-disciplinarian in the house. The way my parents equate the dogs with humans has always puzzled me. Till I came across an article by Grant McCracken, via Marginal Revolution.
The Western conception of the person as a bounded, unique, more or less integrated motivational and cognitive universe, a dynamic center of awareness, emotion, judgment, and action organized into a distinctive whole and set contrastively both against other such wholes and against its social and natural background, is, however incorrigible it may seem to us, a rather peculiar idea within the context of the world’s cultures.We have taken our peculiar idea of the person and conferred it on our pets. This is an exceedingly odd and interesting transformational exercise. After all, these animals are by human standards deeply stupid. When we treat them as persons, we engage in an astonishing act of metamorphsis. But implausibility does not discourage us. We are a nation of individuals and we have decided that our pets are going to be individuals, too.
It all falls in place. In my house, the dogs’ medical files carry their names followed by the family surname, they’re addressed as “children” and well I’m the “brother” who takes them for a walk.
My parents who gave my brother and me a really good upbringing and took great care not to spoil us (chocolates only after dinner etc) seem to have regressed with the dogs.
My sympathies. i completely understand.
Since my parents’ children didn’t oblige them by giving them grandkids - they have decided to bring up Rani - our pup - like a grand kid. Indulgence has reached new heights.
And today she chewed my brand new hush puppies. I was told - but that is a teething child, and as a grown up i should behave like one:)
It happens naturally I guess .. I have a dog and I love her .. after you have been with your pet for a few years .. every day .. obviously the pet will be considered one of the family. As you say they are of a lesser intellect yet they love you and you love them .. thats what matters.
Hey nice pic. I like the one in the middle the best :-))
And I came here to express my gratitude to you for suggesting I look up some other blogs besides Jivha’s as well and I must say it has been a VERY rewarding experience, I’ve just gone through a WHOLE lot of blogs this evening and some pretty good ones at that. So Thanks :-))
Yazad you are still lucky you have pets, my father has areason to not have pets HE CANNOT BEAR THE PAIN OF HAVING A FAMILY MEMBER DEAD.
You have libertarian dogs!
:-)
Yazad, thanks for referencing my pet post. I’m grateful for your comments and the new readers. Best, Grant
I have a big cat (3-1/2 years old) and a 9-week-old kitten. Since I am a libertarian who is interested in education reform, I often catch myself treating my kitties the way I would treat my kids if I had them.. The funny part is I advocate TCS and Natural Child methods. Even funnier is the fact that the methods seem mostly to work on cats.