Personifying Our Pets

            Pets are amazing companions and they make some of the truest friends. They, however, don’t fill places in our lives that humans should, we, as humans shouldn’t just sell their lives, and ours short in that sense. Don’t get me wrong, I love my animals but they’re not playing a role in my life that a human should be playing. This can be disastrous to our health. They’re not acceptable alternatives to human interaction in any way shape or form. This type of relationship with animals can do more harm than good.  You don’t want to end up as the lady who owns 100 cats because she’s old and lonely.

            One thing that happens when we try to allow an animal to replace our relationships with people is hoarding. Hoarding can be emotionally and physically damaging for both people and animals. It’s a form of personal abuse on the person and a form of physical abuse and emotional abuse on the animals. By trying to fulfill a missing spot in our lives that humans should be filling, we are in turn damaging an innocent creature’s life. This isn’t fair to the animal. Animals are not people and should never be put in a place where they would be forced to take a spot that a person should. It doesn’t matter how many animals a person tries to save whatever human relationship a person is trying to compensate for or satisfy can never be enough.

            Don’t get me wrong, keeping a pet is supposed to be fun and rewarding. It’s when the line between human relationships and animal friendships is crossed that the companionship becomes destructive. Simply put, animals are not people and should never be treated like people. They can’t be expected to play that type of role. Personifying a pet is not going to make up for human interaction. They have different behaviors and motives than humans do. It’s not fair to our pets to expect them to be like us. They need to be themselves and nothing more. Think about it. Dressing our adorable pooch up in clothes might seem cute and adorable to us but that pooch is probably miserable. Humans have been wearing clothes for hundreds of thousands of years but animals have not. If we took a tribesman who is accustomed to wearing less than what we wear and placed clothes on him, he’d hate it.

            It would make him feel restricted and out of place. It is not fair to him to make him uncomfortable for societies benefit. What is normal behavior for us is not normal behavior for our pets. I know what your thinking. Why train them or teach them to listen to us? Well truth is modifying their behavior is one thing and making them more human is something completely different. Allowing or even making our animals to eat with us at the table, forcing them to watch TV with us, dressing them up, and all the other things we do to make our pets seem a little more human is unacceptable.

            These things can’t make the animal happy it’s not natural for them. If we were required to prance around on all fours, when we are made to walk upright, would be uncomfortable and at times even painful maybe. So why would we demand our pets to do things unnatural for them? Teaching them things that don’t affect their natural behavior in such a way that it makes them uncomfortable and allows us to live with them is ok. A good example of this is potty training. It isn’t a natural behavior but neither is going on the carpet. They’re used to “going” outside.  It’s when we expect them to be like us that causes severe damage. Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t pamper our pets. I’m saying there is a fine line between pampering and personifying. 

            On a more human note, this can also be damaging for us in an emotional way. On top of the hoarding issues, letting our pets play the role of some missing human counterpart is unhealthy for us. It keeps us from finding someone to fill that position in our lives whether it is a child or a significant other. We should never let our pets take place of relationships with people. Our animals can be like our children but keep in mind they aren’t our children. We can’t socialize with them in the same way as we would another human being. A pet can be a companion but never a human companion. Dealing with whatever problem causing the need for our pets to satisfy the need for human interaction should be resolved instead of overlooked.  By continuing to personify our pets, we are making the issue harder and harder to fix.  I love my pets and I’m pretty sure they love me back but I’d never place them in a role where they’d be expected to fill the “shoes” of another human being in my life.