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Pets are people, too We share this planet with a few other animals. Some we disdain, some we eat.
In any case, as China develops, more and more of its people are beginning to experience the world of pets in what Chinese call "pet-raising", which is really just having a pet in one's home. In North America, tens of millions of people treat their pets like their kids. Pet care has become a multi-billion US dollar market, with food, and items such as shampoo and grooming, veterinary care, vaccinations, and toys, and even vacations and schooling for critters. I happen to be a dog person. I have two of them back in California. They're way too large to be allowed to live in a Chinese urban setting. But they're just like kids to me - and about the size of children - a 60-pound golden retriever and a 70-pound Australian shepherd. I pay their every expense, and get regular e-mail photos from them to see how they're doing. Other folks I know are cat people. They're little friends hop in their laps and purr like a pair of Mercury outboard engines, happy as clams before a chowder party. And they're into mischief all the time, such as a weekend ago when I "cat sat" for a pair. The kittens shredded ever piece of paper in my friend's apartment. Cats will be cats. This brings us to a question: Should one of them have gotten out and climbed up a tall tree and have become too afraid to come down, what should have been done to get the felonious feline back to earth safely? In the US, the answer would've been simple: call the fire department. A big fire engine manned by a team of firefighters would come out to the neighbourhood and set up a ladder and rescue the animal. No kidding. All that time and expense for a cat. Now one might ask why on earth would a fire department waste such time on an animal? What about fighting fires and saving human beings? Of course a US fire department would immediately divert its firefighters and equipment to a fire or other emergency if such an event were to take place. Humans do take priority. But what's the harm in rescuing an animal if nothing else is going on? In fact, entire teams of people, with their own specialized equipment and vehicles, travel all over the Western parts of the United States to rescue animals when forest fires or other disasters erupt. They save horses and cattle and other animals when the need occurs. Those who staff the teams are entirely volunteers. This is the way China will travel as the nation becomes more developed, with more and more people becoming aware of the value that pets and other animals can add to human lives. That's especially true of the vast and growing greying population as development inevitably breaks down the Chinese inter-generational family structure. And China has a dramatically increasing population of seniors, with more than 130 million, 10 per cent of its population, and a rate that is expected to grow at 3.2 per cent over the next 50 years Studies are finding that "empty-nesters" who have a pet enjoy better physical and mental health than elders living alone. Psychology Professor Zheng Richang, with Beijing Normal University, said a study showed that 161 elders who had a dog or cat saw doctors less than the 558 who did not have animals in their home. "Worldwide, scientists have also found that pet owners have a longer life expectancy and are more likely to survive emergencies such as heart attacks," he told Xinhua News Agency. |
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But some we have learned to love. That is to say, a few of us do. Others of
us haven't gotten past the view that animals aren't to be enjoyed as companions
on this earth.
