“Emotional attachments to and functions of animals in human families are highly variable — and not always positive. Some family pets are surrogate children, some are partners, some are tangible property, some are unpaid employees, some are scapegoats, and some… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share Image
“Yet still, beneath all the marketing and social construction of attitudes and desires and shopping habits, there is a deep yearning for connection. The main reason people seek the company of pets must be psychological: animals make people happy and satisfy a basic urge to tend, to love, to bond. “Companion animals,” write Henri Julius and colleagues, “may satisfy the… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share
“There is a tendency to oversimplify the issue of spay/neuter and to promote the essential benefits without recognizing that our animals do suffer some harm, even if it is only the harm of deprivation—the harm of having their sexual and reproductive experiences stolen from them. It is possible to take this argument to the extreme and assert that we should… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share
“A common misconception is that pets have easy lives. They don’t have to do any work to find food and shelter or to protect themselves from harm. But making life easy for captive animals doesn’t do them the great favor we might imagine. Providing them with appropriate challenges affords them opportunities to put their functional competencies to work, to engage… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share
“I know that market value is a repulsive accounting of somebody’s worth, and many of us would be unable to put a monetary value on the worth of our animal companions, but the pet industry is willing and able. And animals are cheap. Lee Edwards Benning’s 1976 book The Pet Profiteers called out the industry, and consumers, for what could… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share
“If you balk at the idea that dogs could be bred like pigs, I’m sorry to disabuse you. Dogs and pigs alike are treated as breeding livestock. The animals are made to have as many young as possible. The babies are taken away at a young age so that they can be sold and a new breeding cycle can begin.… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share
“Emotional attachments to and functions of animals in human families are highly variable — and not always positive. Some family pets are surrogate children,… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share Image
“Often we jump to the conclusion that a dog or cat who doesn’t like to be petted is cranky or unfriendly, but this isn’t… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share Image
“Some of this diversity in animal feeling is surely related to enculturation (we in the United States tend to love dogs and be disgusted… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share Image
“I recently asked a veterinarian friend how he thought about our relationship to companion animals. “They are slaves—chattel slaves,” he said breezily. I was… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share Image
“Massive round-ups of strays have been replaced by daily intake and elimination, the large crate full of dead dogs replaced by a steady trickle… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share Image
“I’m focusing here on dogs because this is where almost all of the research and exposés lead us. But of course puppies aren’t the… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share Image
“Animals are not genderless objects. “He” and “she” are vast improvements over “it.” “Who” is more fitting than “that” or “which.” (So, it isn’t… — Jessica Pierce Copy Share Image
