Pets and Suggestions

The caption for this picture said, "An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language." When looking into an animal's eyes as Walker did in her short story, it is hard not to see that.

www.flickr.com/photos/ktaylorphotography/3386339076/

I thought that Alice Walker’s Am I Blue? short story was very interesting and innovative. At first I thought that Walker’s opinions weren’t in line with what we have been reading and that maybe she was only anthropomorphizing the horse, Blue. However, the transition of Blue’s eyes meant a lot to me. He went from a “horribly lonely and bored” (Walker, 316) animal to an “independen[t],”(317) “self-possess[ed],” horse, to a hating, disgusted “beast.” (318) This change all came about from his treatment as property of the humans. He was at first only bored—only bored I realize being an unfair understatement—because he didn’t have any real excitement or anyone to spend time with. Eventually humans gave him a companion, and his entire world changed for the better—that is until they unscrupulously took the horse away. It’s sad how dependent their lives were on forces completely outside their control. The Dreaded Comparison provides a similar example, that of slaves being torn away from their loved ones because masters either wished to engender hopelessness or because they believed them to be like animals who could “soon get over separation from a child or other loved one.” (Spiegel, 48) That justification is wrong on many levels. Obviously it is wrong to separate humans from those important in their lives, but it is also wrong to separate animals. All social animals feel the need for some sort of connection. It is innate in all of us. The despair and hopelessness we can feel when we are alone, animals will feel as well. It pains me to think that we can forget this because we have made animals commodities—because, like Thomas Aquinas said, “all animals are for man.” (Spiegel, 39)

We should rethink how well we interact with out pets, not just if we're feeding them appropriately but considering another basic need: companionship. Are our pets content with having us as companions or do they really need more?

http://centralillinoisproud.com/media/jpg/pets-dogs-cats.jpg

I’ve thought about this with my own pets before. I’ve always assured myself, and ignored the voices in the back of my mind, that my dog, Annie, is perfectly happy being one of “our pack.” But humans cannot be true substitutes for dogs. I wonder if Annie senses that something is missing in her life. I feel like she’s happy, but I know that she’s bored at times probably for great lengths of time during the day when nobody is home and even when we are there but just “don’t have the time” for her. We even suppress her basic instincts. As a guard dog, she barks constantly, but we also yell at her and punish her for behavior which she believes is good. How confusing that must be! The situation is worse for my guinea pig, Lady. Guinea pigs are very social animals, but we only have her. I’ve convinced myself that I can be her company, but I spend even less time with her than Annie, and she cannot even wander throughout the house as Annie can and ask for attention. I struggle over whether it’s right for me to have animals in the future, but I truly can’t resist. This is evidence of how much we need companionship. I don’t know if people will ever be able to stop having pets—and in the truest sense it shouldn’t even be wrong—but perhaps we will come to realize that we can make our relationships with animals slightly more equal or at least focus on our pet’s needs.

Suggestions

We could have a debate about the ethics of keeping pets. Are we really taking care of them or are they just toys?

While I think a debate would be interesting, I also thought it would be beneficial to make real contributions to animal rights legislature. I searched the internet and found a great site in no time at all. I'm sure there are many more sites that would teach us how we may contribute as well.

We could send these electronic (and easy to fill out) letters to support the following bills:
(All found on the Humane Society’s website)
· Great Ape Protection Act which would phase out the 500 federally owned chimpanzees used for research.
o https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=4242
· Horse Transportation Safety Act which would improve interstate transport of horses.
o https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1926
· Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act which concerns horses being used for human consumption.
o https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2248
· Wild Horses and Burros Act which would end the killing of wild horses and burros for consumption.
o https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=728
· Shark Conservation Act of 2009 would close a loophole which allows sharks to be finned. (Have their fins cut off and thrown back into the water.)
o https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1742
· Sportsmanship in Hunting Act would improve hunting conditions including cracking down on captive hunts.
o https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2032
· Captive Primate Safety Act (already passed in the House!) would work against primates in the pet trade.
o https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1986

Here’s a page for more Humane Society Action alerts: http://www.hsus.org/legislation_laws/action_alerts/
You can go to this page to see how to support various actions for different organizations. There is also a list for different actions in states, so we can check to see if Texas ever has anything we can do.

Also, I’m not sure if any of you have heard of this website before, but it was pretty popular at my high school for a while. You can click a button, and it donates 0.6 bowls of food to an animal shelter. You can sign up for an e-mail reminder and do it once a day—not a big deal! It also has similar tabs which support charities involving hunger, breast cancer, child health, literacy and the rainforest.
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

It also has a site which lists petitions you can sign which support various animal issues. http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/takeaction.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_takeaction_from_thankyou_leftnav

So all I’m saying is that maybe we could periodically spend fifteen minutes in class signing petitions or sending electronic letters to our representatives. Or maybe even for just one day. Anything would help make some positive difference.

Here's a video which gives a case for an Animal Bill of Rights.