David Grimm wrote Citizen Canine inspired by his cats. It's a fundamental book that is answering many of my questions as a pet guardian and pet aficionada. How did we get to this point where pets got to be members of our modern families? Where are we going to go with this close relationship?Grimm, online editor of Science magazine, delivers satisfying answers to that, as he enlightens the whole historical path of humans and their animals and the evolution of this togetherness. It's a fine and fluid read that I recommend to anybody who's willing to bring the understanding of pets and parents to another level.
A bit of background: David and his wife found themselves spending tons of money to save one of their cats and he realized that there's much more to the emotional link between "us" and "them". Here's David's interview, which was interrupted many times by my meowing cat Dada, while I was in the phone while talking to him ... I believe it just added to the experience ...
Did you have helping "paws"while writing your book?
Well, I certainly had the opposite. Jasper wanted to sit on my lap and on my computer while I was trying to work, ... he inspired me but didn't help me the writing process. And Jezebel was the same thing. She was really trying to sit on my lap all of the time. They were certainly not good for my productivity ... They are lap"Top"cats.
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| David Grimm with his Lap(TOP)cats, Jasper and Jezebel |
What was the most surprising thing you've found when researching about pets while writing the book?
The most surprising was to find out what is happening within the US Military. First of all, the Military considered its dogs as equipment and technically they are using dogs as any other piece of equipment. But this is recently changing, and they are treating the dogs more like human soldiers. They now have a new hospital for injured dogs in combat, and even treating them from PTSD. There's even a move in congress changing to reclassify dogs as canine members of the Army. So this shows that even the military, which is a traditionally a conservative institution, is beginning to promote changes.
Do you think the relationship with the soldiers and their dog partners is helping on those changes?
Yes, a lot of the push is coming from the service men and women who are going into combat with these dogs, and sometimes the dog saves their lives or save the lives of the entire unit. For a long time, the soldiers have been giving unofficial medals to their dogs for heroism.
In your book you describe important historical facts that took us to where we are today in relation to our pets, from ownership to "pet parenthood". Where is this taking us?
It is hard to believe that we can get any closer to our pets in our home because we are so close now. Close to 90% of pet owners consider their pets members of the family, we are going to spend about 60 billion dollars on our pets this year and so I think the real changes will come in the eyes of the law, as I write in the book, about cats and dogs being property, and now probably being more than property in the eyes of the law. In the last couple of decades people in Law Schools are studying about the rights of research animals, farm animals and pets. If something is going to change it will be in that area, the legal status -- they are going to be more protected. The Human Rights groups are touching on that, and I think we are going to see more of that happening.
Do you think that our closeness to our pets reflects a loss of interest in human relationships?
I think that one thing that really changed in the past couples of decades that we've seen a lot of is a dramatic rise in the social and legal status of pets and it coincides with the pervasiveness of the internet and social media. We are texting to people instead of talking to them, we are befriending people at Facebook without talking to them at real life and we go out with a group of friends to a restaurant and we all are staring at our phones. Cats and dogs are increasingly present, when we come home they are there and real. This animals don't leave us for technology, they don't go to their room to play with their IPad. Your dog doesn't ignore you because he goes to play with his X-Box in the room. I think that pets are our last anchor to the real world. They are not virtual, they are there. The cat is in your lap, the dogs are in your bed. They are a constant source of love and affection, which is increasingly absent from our modern society.
Do you think that the fact we are treating our pets as our children is defining a new moral ground to human relationships with their pets? Who is going to win at the end: people who treat their pets like farm animals or pet parents?
I think the pets are going to win. The statistics are definitely on the side of people who take care of their pets. You see the statistics even compared with ten years ago, many owners consider their pet as part of the family. We spend a billions of dollars more on our pets each year. We are spending more on dog daycare and dog bakeries, and things like that. In the US more than half homes have a cat or a dog -- more pets than what people have children. People who treat pets as they treat their children are becoming mainstream. People who don't think we should have this relationship are increasingly becoming the minority.
How do you define pet citizenship as a human-pet alliance?
I talk about them really becoming real members of society. I can't see a pet voting or driving a car, but what I am really talking about is them being animals that we consider as part of the make-up of our society. These are animals that we think deserve as much protection as humans do, like we all saw during Katrina's rescue in Louisiana. We are having cruelty laws in 50 states, we are punishing people who abuse dogs and cats. So we are seeing an evolution, even with military dogs, effectively dying for their country and being rewarded for their heroism. We are already seeing them as citizens. We are saying that with acts like treating them as family, that these animals are part of our society, and, like the rest of us, need to be protected.
