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For exotic animals, of course, and especially reptiles, the plight is most dismal. Many bird and reptile pets still start life as wild animals, despite laws prohibiting this in many countries. And often, as many as 90% do not survive the journey from capture to pet store. For example, Helene Widmann told me, affirming Danten’s statements, that in many cases reptiles are purchased by the kilogram. Capturers in Africa, Asia, South America, or elsewhere bring bags full of mixed species—snakes, lizards, tortoises, iguanas, chameleons, whatever they can find. Buyers simply weigh the bags and pay by weight. Those that survive this initial shock are later separated before further transport, often without food or water the entire time. This knowledge sickens me, and it does indeed remind me of the transport of Africans headed for slave markets, wherein large numbers died in the holds of ships during transport.
Furthermore, another 50-90% of reptiles and birds die in captivity much earlier than their wild relatives, from neglect or improper treatment. Most humans do not really comprehend the needs of cats, dogs, and horses, let alone birds and reptiles, for whom our empathy and understanding is even more difficult. People often cannot recognize illness in reptiles, as they live in a disparate reality in a sense, with slow digestion and slow movements in many cases, rather as if they live in a different time- space continuum. Also, reptiles do not cry out in pain or even strongly show pain (unless the observer is skilled in observing them), nor do they seek our assistance as some mammals will.
But we cannot say the lives we offer cats, dogs, or horses is much better. For every one safely in a “loving” home, innumerable others die daily in “animal shelters” or on the streets and land, starving and disease ridden, as they cannot survive due to domestication, overpopulation, and inadequate habitat. Additionally, purebred animals may suffer fates that, while not as grim as for wild-caught exotic species, are nonetheless tragic. Imperfect specimens may be killed outright, perhaps even inhumanely. Others will be sold with genetic flaws, which create lifelong suffering, whether by design as with bulldogs, Shar-peis, and Persian cats, or simply due to careless inbreeding.
And even for those in our homes, whom we “love” and who perhaps “love” us, their lives do not really fulfill their needs. They really are slaves, in a way, as they remain completely dependent upon and controlled by us for their entire lives, for our own needs. Many, such as cats, remain prisoners inside an apartment or house, never even putting their feet on the ground. Most dogs never have any freedom either, always being on a leash and even muzzled in some cases when they are out of the
house or off of the property. As to why we keep animals, Danten believes, as do I, that it is often due to unmet human needs and inadequate expression and resolution of these needs within human relationships. Further, for me, I see pet- keeping even as a sign of cultural insanity, in a way, as I elucidate in Chapter Fourteen of my book.
Essentially, while we believe we “love” our animals, really we keep them to displace our essential angst rather than seeking to resolve and accept such angst. And they, rather than “loving” us, are totally dependent upon us and so they have no choice. Further, by forcing them to relate to humans at a young age, we cause them to imprint upon us rather than upon their own species, and so we cause a bond to us that is perhaps unnatural. And, of course, in the process we have so domesticated them (denatured them) that they would not and could not survive on their own in many cases, so they have no choice but to live with us. Moreover, many would not even exist without humans at this point, so they are domesticated to the point of total dependence in a way. It is a relationship that is inherently and fundamentally unhealthy in many aspects, a devolution of species, both human and non-human.
Yet, make no mistake about it, I understand the important role pets play in our society. For many people, isolated in cities, pets may be their only meaningful contact with other living beings. Pet animals also, having somewhat adapted to life with us, do live in relative comfort compared to their wild cousins (albeit without the freedom). Many are probably even happy. And I like animals a lot, even pet animals.
Still, problems persist; great problems: the dark
underbelly, if you will, of pet keeping: breeding, wild capture, overpopulation, and so on. Also we must not ignore pet animals’ part in human overpopulation and the grave impact upon our world ecology, upon Gaia. Pet carnivores consume massive amounts of meat, which is environmentally costly, and they produce massive amounts of waste — feces and urine. Plus mountains of pet food tins and the like. We have a problem.
What, then, do we do, should we recognize the futility and inherent disorder of such a condition? Danten offers no solutions, and neither do I. Any posited solution at this point would be incomplete and inadequate. We must first consider the questions, deep within our cores, as individuals and then as a culture, in order to see potential and yet humane outcomes. Among those questions are our own roles as veterinarians, in addition to our roles as animal keepers. As difficult as these questions may be, I think we, as homeopaths, who understand perhaps better than our colleagues the stresses our patients live in every day of their lives, have a responsibility to ponder this conundrum. T
Don Hamilton, DVM, is author of Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs: Small Doses for Small Animals.
Dr. Charles Danten’s book, Slaves of our Affection: The Myth of the Happy Pet, and the French version, Le prix du Bonheur: Le mythe de l’animal-roi, are available on Amazon. The Spanish version, Un veterinario encolorizado, is available “at most online stores.”
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