PET ANIMALS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3764, 4 May 1926, Page 71

PET ANIMALS.

How much the companionship of some yet animal means in the lives of very many human beings; most of all in lives that for one reason or another are lonely! One of the most pathetic tragedies of poverty is to be compelled to part with a dumb friend, usually a dog that has been the nearest and dearest companion for years. Sheer want of means to buy feed and to pay the dog tax may compel the sacrifice, or an indigent person who, through age or other capacity, has to go into an institution is placed in th* same position. In the former case one sometimes hears of kindly disposed people coming to the rescue to enable the poor old man or woman to keep the dog that is the chief solace of their declining years. I remember some years before the war reading a pathetic account of the distress suffered by many thousands of Germany’s poor townspeople, owing to the imposition of a greatly increased dog tax. Very many poor families, very many solitary people, could no longer keep the dog they had with difficulty kept before, and had to give it up, usually to be destroyed, according to the regulation system for unwanted animals. Of course, other causes than poverty may make it impossible to continue to keep a pet animal, but poverty is the most frequent one. People whose lives are unsettled, those whose calling entails travel, and those with no abode of their own, can seldom keep pets of any kind. One of the many disabilities attached to living in a flat or in lodgings of any kind is the difficulty or impossibility of keeping a dog or cat, or even a bird, since one’s fellow-tenants will object to the scream of a parrot or the Over-loud singing of a canary. And people who keep pets of any kind should be careful these are not in any way annoying to their neighbours. There is serious responsibility attached to the keeping of pet animals. There is always the responsibility due to the animal itself. We should keep no animal or pet unless we can secure it the conditions of health and happiness; it must have proper feed, shelter, tendance, and freedom. The last requisite is very often neglected; birds are kept in cramping cages, dogs are kept too long on the chain, and seldom given a proper run. If our circumstances do not allow of our giving an animal proper exercise, and the freedom demanded by its nature we have no right to keep it. We incur a moral responsibility if we assume possession of an animal, especially of an intelligent, sensitive creature like a dog or cat. It is cruel to accustom such a creature to depend on one for tendance and affection, and then abandon it or consign it to another owner, unless one can depend on the new owner giving it the care and tenderness it has had from ourselves. Unless one is humanely speaking, sure that one will be able to keep a pet dog or cat to the end of its days, it is better not to yield to the temptation of possessing one. The truest animal lovers usually recognise this, and if they have no settled domicile, and no friends to look after domestic arimals during their occasional absences frpm home, will resign themselves to dispensing with the solace and pleasure of a dumb companion. We are responsible for the welfare of our animals, whether we keep them for use or profit, or solely for the pleasure we take in them. And there are other responsibilities, too, that we must not lose sight of in indulging our love for animals, responsibilities towards our own kind, and the responsibility for making the best use of our own lives. We must not let our pets be a nuisance to those about us, nor let them absorb an undue proportion of our time and energies. Fashionable women who pamper their toy dogs with all sorts of luxuries, decorate them with diamond collars, and send them out driving with a footman are rightly held up to ridicule and contumely. Personally, by the way, I cannot see that this particular folly is worse than a hundred follies of empty-minded and idle rich people, except that it is really doing wrong to the pampered animals themselves. But most people seem to consider pampering of animals as a specially reprehensible form of waste, perhaps because of the contrast suggested between this and the want suffered by so many human beings. Lately some newspaper correspondence begun in connection with performing animals, touched on caged birds and the suffering caused them by caging them at all,, or by confining them in cages, allowing no freedom of movement. It is well that attention should be directed to this question. My view is that it is altogether wrong to capture young birds to be kept in captivity whether in their own country or another. But the case is different with canaries, which for generations have been reared in captivity. Caged canaries, given proper tendance, seem happy enough. Many other birds, however, certainly suffed from the conditions of their captivity. One sees parrots or cockatoos kept in a cage so small that they have little more than room enough to turn round in. On the other hand I have seen some cockatoos which were allowed their liberty the same as pigeons would be; thev flew freely about the garden and neighbour* hood, but oame back to be fed and petted, and to sleep on their accustomed perches. How much better this than to keep the poor birds confined in a close cage.

As a general principal it is well uoi to keep pete that cannot be allowed their freedom, and thus 1 do not think >t is well to encourage children to keep tame rabbits, guinea pigs, etc. Looking after the animals and keeping them clean takes up a good deal of time and unless* very well looked after the creatures will become sickly. Where there is a big* garden and the captives can be given a large run they may be healthy and happy. But in general I think it is far better to encourage children to study the habits of animals in their natural state, and to take pleasure in seeing them enjoy their natural lives than to confine them. The best pets are those that can share our lives, assist us like the horse and the dog in our work and our diversions, and, like the dog and the cat, be constant household companions. I wonder if in another century or two mankind will have become so scientific and hygienic that domestic aimals will be unknown? Things seem shaping that way. The advent of the motor car, the bicycle, and modern mechanical means of transport has made the horse of very much less importance than formerly, whether for untility purposes or for pleaslise. In a few years, it may be, horses will be almost unknown in our towns. Then possibly —though so far the prosSect is not very promising—science will evise seme synthetic substitute for milk, so the picturesque, placideyed cows will become unknown—that is, if vegetarianism gains the day. Some time ago much was said in the papers pf the soya bean as capable, under treatmelt, of yielding artificial milk superior to the dairy product. But as I have seen nothing more about this lately, perhape soya bean milk was no better a substitute for cows’ milk than the new synthetic wool substitute seems to be for sheep’s wool, Again, medical scientists ar* always warning us of thq risk W 6 run by having dogs and cats in our houses, and many non-medical people take up the idea, and run it harder than those who started it. So a great many people to-day will not have- a cat or dog in the house, and are horrified at the idea of their children nursing or caressing one. 1 am very sorry for the children thus hygienically brought up, and deprived of one of childhood’s greatest pleasures, of the clostT companionship of friendly animals. Some years back I knew a little girl, the only child of parents on a farm. One would have expected a country child to have abundant pets; pet lambs, and dogs and cats, as well as to lie on friendly terms with all the domestic stock. But here animals were regarded strictly from the utilitarian standpoint; the mother was a very precise, tidy housewife, who would consider dirty footmarks as of very much greater importance than the pleasure the little girl would have in the companionship of a kitten or puppy; and no pets were suffered. There was a # cat about, but the little girl was forbidden to touch it, and if a lamb was feared by hand she must not play with it. It struck me a particularly hard blow that an only child, without any child companions, should be denied the solace of animal comrades. The mother was a worthy woman and good mother according to her lights, but want of imagination and of sympathy with child needs made her practically cruel to her little daughter. Keeping pets has its moral value for children, helping to develop both their sympathies and their sense of responsibility. It is well to let children, when old enough, look after the feeding and care of their dog, cat, or other pet; the mother being unobtrusively watchful to see that this is properly done. My own view, which, of course, is that of an unscientific person, is that the modern fear of infection, whether through animals or by other means, is carried to extreme lengths. Human beings have not evolved in a sterilised bacteria-proof environment, and the probabilities are that they could not live long in one. I think practically the only serious danger to be guarded against, in regard to infection from animal's is that of contracting hydatids, which may be contracted from dogs. One of the hygienic object-lessons shown in the Exhibition explains the agency of dogs in this disease, which seems to be-far more prevalent in New Zealand than in the Old Country. One hears people say in regard to pet animals that they like animals in their places. One hears some say the same thing of children, and one may safely infer that the speaker is not fond of animals or of children, as the case may be. Certainly there is a sense in which children, as animals, should be kept in their place. But a child lover does not want children always subdued or kept out of the way; and wise and sympathetic parents make companions of their children. A person who cares for animals wants their companionship, of which little can be had if they are to be shut out of our dwellings. If, as Wells and other semi-scientific forecasters of the future tell us, dogfi, cats, and horses will be unknown in the scientifically-evolved world of a century or two hence, I am glad to live now instead of then, and to have my dog and cat sharing my fireside, and snatching a chance to curl up in my lap.