Dogs are People Too

One only had to see the global kerfuffle stirred when One Nation Senator Barnaby Joyce harshly told his dog to “sit down” while being interviewed live on ABC TV. Joyce was speaking from his country property. The dog had been barking loudly, while Joyce was trying to concentrate on the tricky questions being asked.

Fallout from the incident triggered global audiences, including condemnation from inner-city luvvies who have never managed dogs on a working property. That so many were offended on behalf of the dog clearly indicates how dogs and other pets have been humanized in our society.

Dog Ownership

According to the RSPCA website (2023) there are currently an estimated 28.7 million pets in Australia, one of the highest pet ownership rates in the world. Approximately 69% of households in Australia own pets, with dogs being the most common (48%), followed by cats (33%).

Seventy five percent of pet owners live in a multi person household, and 82% of pet owners are from households with incomes of $100,000 or more.

Further, the RSPCA advise that owners report positively about pets, often adopting ‘pet parenting’ behaviours that resemble parent-child relationships – for example, speaking to their pets as though the pet understands what they are saying, and referring to themselves as the pet’s parent.

Humanisation

Just how humanized dogs have become is reflected in the Barnaby Joyce incident, which offended so many. Yet similar experiences are manifold:

• Being chided for not using the dog’s correct pronoun
• Calling the dog “Bubba” as if a baby
• Taking dogs to shops, cafes and club football as if the dogs are interested and separation is unbearable
• Three young women spending hours stroking and fawning over a dog at the football
• Billions of dollars spent on accessories for dog appearance, comfort, food, treats and medication.
•  Prioritising dog’s interests over own health, wellbeing, travel and retirement, even as human capabilities decline; failing to relinquish ownership for the dog’s wellbeing in deference to own failing health and capacity to care (dogbrain).
• TV advertisement showing mum tucking dog into bed under cover with son; allowing dog to lick all over the face of a man, doubtless after having licked its own balls or another dogs’ backside. Whatever happened to all the publicity about hygiene?

Dogification of Humans

Not only have dogs become humanized, humans have been dogified.

Must confess I am not fond of dogs, although I am not afraid of them nor would see them mistreated. Disliking dogs does not equate to my being of lower acceptability, implied by many enchanted with dog ownership, displaying similar dogmatic responses as other mind virus issues such as Palestine, global warming or COVID vaccination. Plants and people are my preference, influenced by experience. Like children, dogs need to be trained and, despite best assurances to the contrary, can be unpredictable.

Most egregious is the hostility and hatred on behalf of the animal, directed at people who set boundaries for dogs, as did Barnaby Joyce. That the incident became a global phenomenon shows how ingrained dogification has become in pet lovers’ psyche. For instance:

• A mother who told her adult sons they were welcome to stay but the dog was not (there was no facility to keep it), was beset with a violent, hostile, abusive tirade that was deeply, personally destructive to family relationships.
• Being threatened to have my teeth kicked in should anything negative be said about a pack of untrained dogs, obviously valued above my humanity.
• Being told to “F**k of bitch” when quietly advising “short lead left hand” to a group spread across the footpath being led by a dog on a loose leash with potential to trip me. At least being called a bitch raised my status to dog.
• Several times being bailed up by packs of three dogs barking aggressively while out for a quiet walk, then accused by the owners of being at fault for upsetting them, I guess, like a car accident, for being there.
• Without cause, I have been bitten a couple of times, once ending up in hospital for a week, owners expressing no interest in my wellbeing.
• Having my seat at the football taken at half-time by a fit younger man and his dog, when I took a bathroom break. The seat had been chosen for my hip limitations for ease of access. The bloke wanted the end seat to settle his dog down. In times past good manners required a man to stand for an elderly woman; today the elderly woman is expected to be displaced for a dog. Says it all.
• Discomforted when dogs stick their nose in my crutch and refuse to move on.
• Having dog barking and dog talk become central to every conversation, constraining sensible adult communication.

Even with all these foibles, dogification has particular appeal in benefits not always extended to elderly. Were I a dog:

• Daily I would be walked and fed, treated with affection, invited into the home, able to sleep on the couch or the bed. I would be fed special food so my poop was not too sloppy to pick up, I would be watered and walked.
• Access to children and grandchildren would be assured; they would happily play with me and turn tricks.
• No expense would be spared to keep me warm and well; I would have a special bed and clothing, toys to amuse me; and be taken to a special park to frolic with my doggy friends, while my ‘parents’ chattered, doggy-talk to other pet owners.
• Family would not care how much I smell, as their olfactory senses are too dulled to notice.
• As a designer dog, I would be paraded as an accessory by my DINK (double income, no kids) owners dressed in their clingy designer leisure wear showing every bodily crease, as unwelcome as my privileged behaviour.

Elder experience

Such a contrast to today’s reality for many elderly. Adult offspring and grandchildren may be dispersed to the far corners of the country or the globe, existing merely digitally, if one is reached out to at all.

Too often marriage into another family creates unwelcome division that sadly deprives elderly of access to the pleasure of grandchildren, as well as preventing grandchildren exposure to the love and wisdom of elderly. All miss out. Not unlike breeding dogs where progeny are attractive in the marketplace for high value, discipline, earning potential and breeding. A real cavoodle.

Value of Dogs

That dogs are so popular is an indication of their intrinsic value to people. For a family and elderly, a dog can be a welcome companion, where children learn the discipline and work of caring for another living creature. Unquestioning loyalty of dogs to their owners is a wonderful assurance, a consolation in a world of digital isolation. As a lifestyle accessory, a dog adds status, invites conversation and builds connections that may be hard to come by. A whole industry has emerged in dog and pet care contributing to the economy.

Working dogs on property, in the military and service of the blind are admirable. Incas of Peru revere dogs in the belief a dog leads the way to the afterlife. Death of a beloved dog after a lifetime of loyal involvement can invoke the same deep sense of loss and grief as were it human.  

Dignity of Humans

Even in the face of value of dogs, they are still dogs, not human. That far too often dogs are elevated above human value, inviting disrespect, hostility or hatred for people who do not share the same emotional connection, is a worrying trend in a self-absorbed world.

Author Greg Sheridan, in his book How Christians can succeed today, reflects that:

Today’s anti-Christian ideology, whether it’s paganism, post-Christianity, pure secularism or something else, involves a twin attack – an attack on humanity itself and the dignity of the human being, and an inevitable, indeed logically necessary, attack on Christianity as the bearer of the good news about humanity’s elevated status in…imago dei, the image of God.

Sheridan posits that the new paganism is not a happy, easy-going movement when it comes to Christianity, prone to mock, degrade, defame, harass and suppress.

One wonders how much the humanisation of dogs and dogification of humans can be attributed to the decline in Judeo-Christian practice and loss of belief in humans as sacred, in the image of God, not to be judged on worth whether or not they like dogs.