I just watched a video someone made about pit bulls that was
obviously designed to break the human heart and to solicit interest in what
happens to dogs obtained for fighting purposes.
The video told the story of a puppy adopted by a dog fighter and the
abuses it endured told from the perspective of the dog. The dog ‘wondered’ a lot of things, the dog ‘wished’
for a different life (like the one his mother had) and the dog ‘understood’
that the life it was leading was a bad one.
While I most certainly understand the point of the video, hopefully to
motivate more people to combat dog fighting, the premise that a dog would be
thinking and more so feeling all of this just like a human would I don’t think
is helpful at all to dogs anywhere; not even as a vehicle for social change to
benefit dogs.
There are already far, far, far too many dog owners, people
who advocate for dogs and people who rescue dogs that truly believe that, and
behave like, dogs are just like humans in every way except that they live in a
different kind of body and have no voice to speak with. Dogs do have a voice but it’s not the same as
we humans have and if they did it most certainly would not be used to express
all of the human shortcomings, fears, anxieties, thoughts and feelings that we
all experience from time to time. I can
promise that a dog’s voice would not be used to tell sad tales of the past, it’s
hopes or express fears about the future but would be used to express what is
happening right now without judgment about it but simply to say, ‘I am happy, I
am excited, I am playing, I am tired, I am anxious about what’s happening right
now, I am afraid of the sound I’m hearing right now, I am hungry, I’m thirsty,
I am bored, I want out, I’m so happy you are home, where are you going? I want
to go too, etc.”
The belief that dogs have human-like feelings that are the
result of human-like thinking is a detriment to dogs and is not a benefit to them.
The expression of our human love for
dogs has often been more at their expense than for their benefit. We show them affection 100% of the time; even
when they’ve just exhibited a behavior that we don’t want them to. We try to comfort them like we might a child
when they are afraid. Even though by doing so we are literally telling them
that we want them to be afraid because we are giving affection while they are
in a state of fear and that tells them we ‘like’ it when they feel that way. So since their goal is to please us, every time they are in that situation again
they will feel fearful or anxious. We
expect them to rationalize in order to understand our words, our meaning, our
intentions and our desires when they don’t have the ability and never will have. When we relate to them as we would a human
and they don’t react or understand as we expect or want them to then we blame their past,
what someone else did to them and even their breeding; often getting rid of
them because of their behavioral issues when we caused the behavioral issues by
treating them like a specie that they are not, will never be, can never be and
who I personally would not like them to be.
Treating dogs like a dog is NOT inhumane and is not the sign
of a heartless, cruel, cold, unfeeling human being. In fact treating dogs like a dog based on how
they treat one another is a gift that every dog deserves to have from the human
who chooses to make that dog a part of their life. I can’t imagine just how emotionally screwed
up a human being might become or how they might misbehave if they were captured
by another specie and then expected and forced to think like that specie in
order to understand what that specie wants and is then forced to live a life as
a member of that specie rather than as a member of our own specie. How many of us would like and/or understand
being forced to live and think like another specie even if it was in the lap of
luxury with everything we could ever want?
How many of us would ‘sell our human soul’ and stop thinking/being human
just so another specie could 'feel' good about having us in their lives and/or so we could live in the lap of luxury? I know I wouldn’t. I am human, deserve to be treated like
one and absolutely deserve to live like one.
Treating our dogs like dogs does NOT mean that we don’t love
them, that we don’t give them the best life possible, that we don’t make their
lives as comfortable and as pleasant as possible. Treating dogs like dogs, which they ARE,
simply means that we go out of our way to observe and understand how dogs
relate to one another, how they interact and how they communicate with one
another so that we can provide (FOR them) the easiest ways to communicate with
them so that they understand what it is we want from them and what is expected
of them as a part of our family.
In closing I just want to say that so many people say that
they ‘love’ dogs when often enough the ‘love’ they feel is NOT for the specie
itself but is for what that specie gives us which is unconditional love no
matter who we are, what we do to them or how we treat them. For this ‘unconditional love’ don’t you think
we should give them the opportunity to be a dog rather than just our cute, four-legged
source for unconditional love??? For all
that dogs give to us don’t you think it’s time we gave back in a way that will
not only serve them but will also serve the relationship we have with them
because we are communicating with them on their level rather than expecting
them to communicate with us on a human level? IF someone truly LOVES DOGS then one surely
loves dogs not because they are a source of undying loyalty and of
unconditional love but BECAUSE they are dogs and because dogs are an amazing specie
that has a lot more to teach us about how to live in harmony and in a joyful
state of mind than we could ever teach them…
