What are we talking about when we talk about pets? Pets are favorite animals, given individual names, allowed in human homes and never eaten. Any species can be a pet. Dogs and cats are the most common, followed by birds and animals known as specialty or exotic pets such as fish, ferrets, hamsters, guinea pigs, rodents, snakes and other reptiles and amphibians. Horses can be considered pets, but there are also considered livestock. What the sociologist Jenny Familia calls a border species. Favored cows, sheep, or pigs can be considered pet and livestock. These individuals may be spared the fate of slaughter altogether, or they may hold their favorite status only temporarily, transforming eventually from pet into commodity. In the 1970s, there was a fed called the pet rock. Anything can technically be a pet. There's something obviously special about relationships people have with some animals, and that's referred to as the human animal bond. The story of a dog or cat is close companion, is an ancient one. Some of the most compelling evidence of our shared history is the intentional burial of dogs and cats. Although mere burial suggests nothing more than a way to dispose corpses, the discovery of numerous animal graves in locations all around the world suggests other motives. The bodies of dogs have often been found arranged in sleeping postures after death. Dog remains have been found curled up with the head placed on the pause. Special offerings included in the burial suggests the individual and deliberate preparation of graves. The earliest known site of a canine burial at Bonn, Oberkassel Germany is especially intriguing because it also contains the bones of two human beings, suggesting companionship. The canine bones are those of a dog, morphologically distinct from a wolf, and the three were buried together around 14,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence has challenged the conventional story of the human-cat relationship. Here too a mutual grave provides the insight. The discovery of thousands of mummified and sacrificed cats indicates that the Egyptians were breeding them 2,900 years ago. These weren't pets as we know them. The question of when humans began to keep cats as companions found an answer in 2004 from a grave in Cyprus. About 9,500 years ago, an adult human of unknown sex was buried along with numerous items such as tools and shells. 40 centimeters away, just a little over a foot was the body of a young cat oriented in the same way. Now, cats aren't native to the islands of the Mediterranean. The cat had to have been brought to Cyprus by boat, most likely from the region we know today as the Middle East. The archaeologists who made this discovery claim that the transport of cats to the island, together with the burial of the human and the cat, indicates that a special intentional relationship with cats existed nearly 10,000 years ago. Over the course of coexistence, our relationships with dogs and cats have taken many forms. Historically, dogs and cats lived outdoors and perform tasks such as hunting, keeping vermin away, or guarding and herding livestock. As the need for canine and feline workers decreased beginning in the 19th century, dogs and cats found new jobs being companions for people. Today, over half of all households in the United States, Canada, and the European Union, and just under half in the United Kingdom include at least one pet. Households with children have the highest rates of pet ownership. The way people value in regard animals in general and pets in particular, has changed in the last half-century. Today, many people form close relationships with their pets. Our closeness has been referred to as the human-animal bond. You might initially think of emotional closeness, but our physical closeness has increased to. For instance, many pet owners allow their dogs and cats to sleep on the bed with them. They allow them on the furniture and sitting closely, hugging or holding their pets is an important part of the relationship. The ability to enjoy this physical closeness was only possible once veterinarians and veterinary parasitologists in particular discovered ways to control fleas, ticks, intestinal worms, and other parasites that would make physical closeness with dogs and cats unpleasant and even unhealthy. You can imagine, but you might not want to imagine having a flea infested dog on your bed or your couch. Here's the take-away. When you think of the human-animal bond, you might envision hugging a dog or a cat, an emotional attachment, but the bond involves more than this. The veterinary profession has a clear definition of the human-animal bond. The American Veterinary Medical Association defines it as a mutually beneficial and dynamic relationship between people and animals that is influenced by behaviors essential to the health and well-being of both. This points out that the enjoyment we get from our relationships with animals depends on us recognizing the responsibilities we have to those animals.
