Increasingly,
in my various reading of dog related articles, I find myself referred
to as 'pet parent' or 'pet guardian'. I don't care for that.
I'm
a woman. I am not my dogs' mother, I'm not their parent. I'm not some
freak of Nature, haven't given birth to dogs or cats or any other pets.
While they do have parents, I am not one of them. Their fathers know
nothing of their existence, having been no more than sperm donors.
Their mothers would not only not recognize them if they saw them but
would quite possibly offer to mate with them, or fight them for food.
While all of this may be de rigeur in some strata of human society it
does not fit into commonly accepted human norms. To be designated 'pet
parent' diminishes the concept of parenthood.
I
am not a pet guardian. Guardianship implies oversight by someone else,
a third party who sets rules of conduct and care with which I have to
comply. I make my own decisions about my dealings with my dogs
according to my conscience and the values I hold which govern my
interactions with living things. I guard my dogs' welfare to the very high standards I've set but I am not their guardian.
I
am their owner. They are my property. I can sell them at will. I can
store them in crates. I can sterilize them, or not. I can show them
off. I can treat them and feed them any way I chose to.
Parenthood
and guardianship bestow rights to that which is being parented or
guarded. The guardian of an estate, for instance, has to make sure that
the contractual provisions of the estate, its rights, are being met.
Parents speak for their children in defense and support of those
children's rights.
Dogs
don't have rights; neither do trees or rocks or crocodiles. Rights are
a human concept. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Those are
the basic human rights. Dog ownership requires of moral people that we
do all we can to protect our animals' lives, offer them as much liberty
as is safe for them, and do what we can to help them be happy.
By
allowing ourselves to be called pet parents and pet guardians we are
giving consent to abide by a standard of conduct set for us by others.
Animal Rights groups and politicians are queuing up everywhere to limit
our rights as property owners. They tell us that we must neuter our
pets. That we may not keep them confined in kennels and crates.
They limit where and how we can travel with our property. They make
demands on and regulate our ownership and thusly whittle away at our
rights.
Primary cultural change
is often insidious. It seeps into our consciousness gently, slowly and
with great subtlety until we've bought into it without ever having
noticed. Like high fructose corn syrup, it pervades. We do it, here, on
our e-mail list. We talk about our fur kids, mommy and daddy doing this
or that with them, we proclaim that they're our children. They are not.
They're our dogs. We are their owners.
