No animal even remotely compares in import to the dog here at Cold Antler Farm. Dogs get the lion’s share of attention, love, and care. They live in the house with me. They share my bed and furniture. They get the best medical attention, food, and effort I can afford. Dogs are not livestock to me. They are not children, siblings, or any other simulacrum of human interaction. They are my dogs. That is enough.
I am a dog person. When I say that, I do not mean that as a subculture identifier. I do not spend my evenings in paw-print embroidered sweatshirts scouring Petfinder.com to foster homeless canines or sifting through breed-specific email lists. Dogs are not my hobby, occupation, or entertainment. When I say “I am a dog person,” I mean that my personhood is intensely connected to, and made better through, my life with dogs.
They are my partners in living in this world. And I don’t mean “partners” as a replacement for a human spouse or family, not at all. I mean partners in the most basic way possible. They are my wingmen, staff, and teammates. We exist in a primal partnership that has sung the same long howl since before any human beings had surnames or used complex tools. We ran beside each other long before memory-foam dog beds and Nylabones. This partnership is ancient and ceremonial. It is the combination of two amazing stories, shared over meat and firelight. It is our legacy and privilege to share our lives with another beast so in tune and useful to us.
Dogs
This has led to the belief that dogs can provide company, affection and support to people who are going through a difficult time or who feel lonely. Dogs have aided humans in tasks such as hunting, livestock herding, and guarding. However, as society moved from small rural communities to increasingly large metropolitan areas, the dog’s role changed. Throughout the years a more specific type of
Do animals have the right to a certain quality of life? How would your views change if our cooks got treated the same way cattle and poultry do? How would you feel about them being beaten and brought to their knees just to be detained to know how to cook todays specials? You might think that the food industry has no issues and no faults behind their tasty food, but when you open up the meat curtain, there is a different kind of world out there that is cruel and inhumane. In Robert Kenner’s 2008 film, Food, Inc., He shows the conditions that cows, chickens, and pigs have to live in. The dark and closeted homes in which the animals are closely compacted together and eating, sleeping, and walking in their own manure. As a person who would consider themselves an animal rights activist, most people would agree that the food industry treats their animals like products instead of living things.
Dogs are what their owners make of them, they are shere products of their environments and feed off of how their owners treat them. For example, in America pit bulls, over the years have been portrayed as harmful or aggressive. These views have lead to manying uncompassionate acts towards this lost breed. Such as, selling the dogs for drugs to people who could care less about them to forcing pitbulls in harmful dog fights. In America’s society today some often view pitbulls as just a way of breeding dogs. This means that they essentially are not taking part in what it actually means to have a pet. People are suppose to provide, feed, care, and love their dogs and in some cases that’s not their important objective. The underlying issue that
A quote once said by Frederick the Great states; “A dog is a man’s best friend.” There are millions of dog lovers across the world, I’m speaking to many in this class right now, so dog lovers, have you ever thought about this? Imagine walking into a pet store and looking around at all the different kinds of animals, and then your eyes are set on the dogs. You just can’t decide what one you want. One of the main key facts about choosing the right dog is considering where it is raised and many dog owners don’t. Some of the dogs could have been raised in a puppy mill. Puppy mills are a problem in the U.S today. And the problem with puppy mills is the effect they have on the dog itself and even the owner.
A poll conducted by the ASPCA revealed that 94% of Americans believe that production animals, specifically those raised for food, deserve to live a comfortable life free of cruelty and neglect. Despite this belief, many factory farm animals are abused and neglected in such ways that, if witnessed by consumers, would not be accepted. Over 99% of the United State’s farm animals live on factory farms that use them for means of profit, many of them violating the Animal Welfare Act and other laws put in place to protect the humane treatment of animals (ASPCA). This abuse is not limited to any specific type of farm animal. Although different animals are used for different purposes, they all share a common suffering and a need for humane care.
People can either be a cat person or a dog person. Cats and dogs are unique creatures yet they are the two most common household animals. I am definitely a dog person. I love dogs. I think everyone should have a dog. They’re great pets. Dogs are fun and a lot of work but it sure is worth it. Cats, on the other hand, I don’t care for. I had a cat when I was only about one year old and she got run over by a car. Ever since then my family has had a dog. Maybe if I had a cat when I was growing up I would like them more.
Dogs are not just cute and fuzzy friends. Since it has been thousands of years that dogs have been trained to do things for humans, we can now count on dogs to do very specific jobs. For example, the article from the U.S. Department of Justice says, “Service animals are defined as dogs that are
Another important part of the problem are the businesses that contribute to the population of pets, the dog breeders, sometimes called puppy mills. The Oxford Dictionaries defines a puppy mill as “an establishment that breeds puppies for sale, typically on an intensive basis and in conditions regarded as inhumane” (“Puppy Mill,” 2015). The Friends of Animals (2013) Web site, gives some definitions of what a puppy mill is from an animal lover’s point of view. The housing for dogs is small pens and in which they may never have the chance to touch the grass in their lifetime. Veterinary care for the breeding dogs is a minimum to increase the profit from the sale of the puppies. Most of the puppy mills are located in central states, where Adams (1991) explains that the large factory chicken farms have taken over the local farmer’s cash crop of chickens resulting in the farmer breeding dogs for their cash
People should be one with their animals and see them as companions and not just as work tools. “Had him since he was a pup. I herded sheep with him. He said proudly, you wouldn’t think it to look at him now…” (Steinbeck, 44).
As stated previously, homeless animals in America do not have enough loving homes to go around. While not all these alternative sources of pets are necessarily bad, they remain a factor keeping so many of the 6.5 million dogs and cats entering shelters out of homes by taking spots away (‘Companion Animal Overpopulation”). Furthermore, despite the existence of reputable breeders and pet stores, numerous places like these actually locate their animals from puppy mills. Puppy mills churn out dogs quickly by keeping their animals in inhumane conditions, and when dogs are deemed no longer profitable, they can be abandoned or killed, helping to contribute to the surplus of unwanted animals (“Top Reasons to Adopt a
While reading the article “Let Them Eat Dog” all I could think of is my dog that I have waiting for me at home. I see my dog as a companion someone who I can talk to about anything. When there is no one around that is who I go to when I feel sad, or when I need
For millions of years dogs have remained a constant companion of man. Bred from the aggressive and formidable Gray Wolf tens of thousands of years ago the domestic dog now lives in many homes across the world. Where in the far distant past the domestic dog was bred as a guard animal, a beast of burden, and even a food source the dogs of today are bred for a far more endearing purpose-companionship and love. Finding a pet dog that is more of a joy than a chore is necessary when asking: How much is that puppy in the window?
Cute, fun, loving, cuddly, outgoing; these are only a few words to describe the animals that we have come to know and love as a part of our families. Dogs have been man’s best friend for hundreds of years and were the first animal to be domesticated because they are great as companions, highly intelligent, and were found to be very useful in human’s everyday lives. Even though they made excellent house pets they were highly successful at working side by side humans as well. They are not limited to being just best friends, but they have been found to be protectors and saviors as well, to their owners, others people and even other dogs too. One type of working dogs in
Humans have always had a complicated relationship with non-human animals. This relationship has always benefitted the needs of humans, with little consideration for animals’ needs. Some animals are tortured for entertainment, some are butchered for food and others are taken from their habitat and family, and forced to be pets for humans. These are all examples of the ways humans have exploited animals for their own satisfaction. Hal Herzog’s essay “Animals Like Us” describes the complicated relationship that humans and animals have, and how difficult it is to determine what is ethical when dealing with animals. Jonathan Safran Foer makes a similar observation in his essay “The Fruits of Family Trees” of the ethical issues in the
“A dog is a man’s best friend” goes much deeper than the phrase might initially imply. Recently many medical journals have begun to identify with the many and varied benefits of pet ownership. Men have always relied upon animals for work, transportation, and survival. As times have changed, man has begun to appreciate a different bond with animals. Gone are the days of animals running free outside around the homestead, for now animals are allowed inside and are considered by many to be an integral part of our daily lives! Medical studies have found that animals have a much greater intelligence level than originally thought. Through proper training and experience, animals are not only household pets, but also are becoming an accepted form