This Monday marks the 246th anniversary of America’s independence from tyranny and the rule of kings.
The degree to which we enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is arguably variable among our populace. Generally, people of lighter skin tones ride higher waves of opportunity than those of darker complexions. Steeped in “Replacement Theory,” some would like to keep it this way. Others stir waves of awareness to ensure that each crop of humanity is well watered.
Our republic is far from perfect, But, the endeavor nurtured by our Founders’ vision (with perhaps a tweak or two to adapt to the times) is worth fighting for. Despite our current divisive climate, I believe that people with honest differences can live together without fear — and be the better for it.
Our pets’ freedoms are wholly dependent upon their humans. Animals enjoyed a more equitable power balance during the late Mesolithic period (shared hunts, kills and feasts). Today, they are bred to exhibit the traits we find most desirable and discarded when they fail our standard. Domestication and artificial selection have stripped animals of skills required to flourish in the wild and, in some cases, rendered them little more than vanity mirrors reflecting our darker sides.
This fact is a core tenant of the anti-pet movement. And, a bitter pill to swallow; we have been less-than-stellar stewards of responsible pet parenting. Worse, many of us know that and hold our destructive course, anyway; powerful dogs have been overbred, tortured, then labeled “dangerous” by animal control authorities; under cover of heroism, media mongers conduct wholesale “rescues” of dogs and cats, capitalize on their quarry, then leave the animals to languish; the ignorant and entitled acquire pets like nicknacks, then surrender them when life gets cluttered.
Biblical Testaments Old and New give humans “dominion” over the earth, its resources and creatures. Backed by religious and cultural carte blanche, we continue to seize, plunder and rape the land and subjugate beings we deem inferior.
Until we experience the earth as a living, breathing being; until we respect the nuanced language of beasts, we will remain consumers of our world rather than cohabitants of it.
For better or worse, pets are here to stay. Under the best conditions, we’ve developed a symbiotic relationship with pets that is mutually supportive and nourishing. But, by design, pets must survive in our world. They rely upon us for love, socialization, cognitive development, nourishment and medical care.
Just like our republic, our covenant with pets is far from perfect. But a “more perfect union” has evolved tremendously over the past 150 years. On a trip to Russia in 1863, Henry Bergh stopped a carriage driver from beating his fallen horse. His outrage forged the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. After the atrocities leveled upon pets displaced during Hurricane Katrina, the late Charlotte Bass Lilly of Animal Rescue New Orleans inspired a deeply-divided congress to pass the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act in 2006. This act mandates that emergency services treat pets like family during catastrophes. In 2019, congress banded together again to pass the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act that made animal cruelty a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Our more perfect union with pets is a work-in-progress empowered by our independence. May we be worthy of our pets’ dependence on us.