Thought Exercise #8: Due 10/29/13

"Something remarkable has been happening in the post-industrial contexts across the world since the 1990s: a shift from considering pets (especially dogs) as a species apart, to a reconsideration of pets (especially dogs) as profoundly appropriate objects of human affection and love....the prototypical Fido who slept on the floor and ate scraps from the table has been replaced by Lucy, a companion with increasing legal rights who sleeps on a bed and eats upscale foods....In many post-industrial places across the world, dogs are for the first time being formally and regularly accommodated in doggie beaches, parks, high-class hotels, cafes and restaurants; department stores and mainstream retail catalogues feature substantial selections of pet goodies; and new genres of boutiques and retail outlets for pets (many of them online) have emerged."
--"Critical Pet Studies?" by Heidi J Nast

As a dog owner, I consider dogs as more than just pets, than as just cute little fashion items to be stuffed in frilly clothes and purses to tote around so that other people can coo over them and probably even humiliate them. My dogs hate clothing, for the record. It annoys me so much when people consider little dogs as "the ultimate fashion accessories." No, stupid, dogs are not fashion accessories! They're living beings who deserve love, care, and attention from human families who raise them!

I also have heard of, and know of, people who simply abandon or give away their dogs when they can no longer care for them. Some young couples will adopt dogs as practice for raising a child. Once a baby arrives, the couple will abandon the dog. I just think, "WTF? How in the world could you do that to a dog? The dog loves you and needs you, and you get rid of it just because it isn't human?" I also know of someone who has raised several dogs when he was young, but had to give them away. One of the dogs he raised was when he moved out of his parents' home at age 16, but when he had to leave for UCLA for college, he had to give his dog away. I just think, "You know you going to college. Why the Hell did you raise a dog then?"

It makes me sad that many apartment buildings prohibit dogs from living there. When I was in Canada, my mother and I were surprised to see people walking their dogs into stores at malls. These were incredibly well-behaved dogs as well.

When I think of dogs, one dog that comes to mind is the dog Wishbone, the titular character of the PBS Kids' show from the 90's about a Jack Russell Terrier who loves classic literature and retells them to the audience. It was so cute to see a live-action dog star in his own TV show and watch him interact with other humans as if he was one of them. It makes me wish dogs all over the world could be loved by humans that much.