COMPANION ANIMALS

Addressing the animal rights issue cannot proceed seriously without taking into account the enormous and ongoing effect that the human fixation with companion animals has on hundreds of millions of animals around the world.

Whilst many companion animals lead wonderfully fulfilled lives, loved and cared for by their human companions, many more lead lives of deprivation, incarceration, neglect and suffering, their miserable lives prematurely brought to an end by lethal injection, under the wheels of a motor vehicle or from disease. Others still endure decades of loneliness in small cages or at the end of a chain.

How can this be? More than any other factor contributing to the abuse and exploitation of companion animals (herein after referred to by the proprietary term, “pet”) is the lucrative trade in these animals and the parallel “pet product” industry.

People obtain pets and replace pets more easily than ever before. Sadly, the increased availability of pets, prepackaged pet food, and veterinary care has not been paralleled by an increase in responsible pet care.

More dogs and cats are bred irresponsibly and end up in animal shelters or worse, more birds are imprisoned in tiny cages, greater numbers of “exotic new” pets are becoming available, and more rabbits, rats, mice, hamsters and other little animals are bought and passed along than ever before.

Pets have become convenient and disposable. Relatively few humans realise the cruel implications of the trade in pets. Fewer still consider it anything other than their right to obtain and keep in whatever circumstances that suit them any animals they can afford to buy or otherwise acquire.

Consider that: - Almost every female rat, mouse, hamster, guinea pig or rabbit bought from a pet shop will be pregnant unless it is still a baby. But, if the person who acquires it has another animal of the opposite sex, of the same species, the chances are it will become pregnant as soon as it is able to. What happens to the babies? They get given to friends, given or sold back to the pet shop, or sold as snake food. And then the cycle repeats itself with the likelihood of abuse and neglect increasing all the time.

- Most birds bought from dealers end up alone in small cages, deprived of freedom, denied the opportunity to mix with others of their kind, and fed a diet that is convenient but incomplete. Most of these birds spend their entire lives, sometimes fifty years or more, as prisoners in solitary confinement.

- So-called exotic animals are constantly “introduced” to the pet market as the latest “fad” pet. Most are kept in unsuitable conditions, fed an incorrect diet and don’t live up to their “owner’s” expectations. Think here of the miniature pigs that grow much bigger than expected and demolish the garden, or the monkeys and marmosets that bite people and defecate/urinate all over the house, or the snakes that don’t really do much except lie coiled up in their sterile glass tank and have to be fed live prey once in a while.

- Many populations of wild animals are in serious peril because of the cruel trade in wild animals, both legal and illegal. Whilst many of these unfortunate creatures end up as zoo exhibits or pets, many more are killed or die during the process of capture, transport to markets and dispatch to all parts of the world.

The tragedy of dog and cat over population By far the most visible and recognisable example of pet abuse and neglect is the irresponsible breeding and disposal of dogs and cats.

Uncontrolled breeding, desire to own pedigree dogs and cats with particular characteristics at the expense of cross-breeds, unsuitable homes, and ignorance about the benefits of sterilising dogs and cats, coupled with the relatively “high’ cost of veterinary sterilisation, all contribute to the tragedy that is dog and cat overpopulation in South Africa and the rest of the world.

For more information on the “tragedy of dog and cat overpopulation in South Africa” and what you can do about it, click here.

An animal rights issue! That the problems are far more serious and deeply entrenched than can be addressed here is obvious to anyone taking the time to look into this matter. However, there is one overriding factor that must be acknowledged as the root cause of all the problems associated with the keeping of pets, namely, that humans consider it their right to “own” animals and to do with this “property” as they see fit.

For as long as there is money to be made from trading in pets and the acquisition and owning of pets is encouraged by the “pet food” and “pet accessories” industries, and whilst legislation protects the rights of property owners rather than the rights of the exploited animals, pets will continue to suffer and die in their tens of thousands, and even millions.

As always, there are also three camps when it comes to pets: those who want to abolish the oppressive system, those who want to reform it, and those who are comfortable with the status quo.

This is an animal rights issue, as are all issues concerning the abuse and exploitation of animals. And though people may, and probably will, be appalled at the level of blatant cruelty, abuse and neglect which is rampant wherever and whenever people keep and confine animals as pets, or trade in and otherwise dispose of so-called pet animals, human apathy ensures that the status quo prevails.

It is an objective of the animal rights movement to address that apathy and change the way people think about and act towards other animals, so that other animals are not seen as “here for us”, so that in future humans treat other animals with the respect that the latter are entitled to.