Sunday, January 01, 2006

On Approved Credit (O.A.C)

A few days ago, while in Calgary visiting with friends, a few of us went out to one of the local malls. Wandering about, we ended up in a pet store.

Now usually I don't go into pet stores at all. The link between pet stores and puppy mills is well-established and not only leads to a consumerist approach to the selling and buying of puppies, but also to a litany of illnesses and sickness in the pet store puppies, often with the end result being a trip to the SPCA or worse for a sickly puppy and an ill-informed owner. I cannot speak to other animals (ie. cats, birds, etc) but I would imagine that the story is similar.

In short, puppy mills, illegal as they may be, flourish and specialize in the maximum "production" of puppies, often and usually at the expense of the mother dog, who is continually impregnated, sickly, abused, confined, and in short treated like a vending machine more than a living thing. You can google "puppy mills" if you are brave enough, often the pictures and stories are horrifying to say the least.

Anyway, the large majority of puppies in pet stores, save for the few (very few) who advertise "donated" dogs (hmmm, I wonder) come from puppy mills or breeders who are less than reputable. I had little reason to think this store was any different.

Of course, they had the cute puppies behind the glass windows, displayed on an impossibly cruel and tiny shelf, for lack of a better word. Needless to say, it broke my heart to see these puppies isolated and confined. If they do get a walk twice a day, it is most likely still confined to the store, a store than operates on mall hours, not animal hours.

Above the display cases was a laminated piece of paper, advertising that one could own one of these puppies for the low low price of $38 per month, OAC.

I like to think I have seen it all when it comes to the limits of selfish consumerism, but then again, people are cold and there is money to be made.

This dog, no matter where it came from, is not a stereo. It is not a computer. It is not any one of your appliances from the Brick that you have financed over a three year term. This is a living animal. But you wouldn't know it to see this sign, which in effect trivializes the seriousness of owning and caring for an animal.

On top of that, the $38 a month invites ignorant owners and impulse buyers. How many of those dogs do you think were under a Christmas tree this year, a gift purchased more for financial reasons (ie- affordable) than for logical, well-though-out reasons that should govern the ownership of a living thing.

I have used the phrase "ownership" throughout this post, and I do think it applies, in the initial stages of taking a pet into one's home. I own Monday, she is my possession. I will argue, to the end though, that Monday and dogs like her, quickly transcend the "possession" idea and become one of the family, if they are allowed to do so. I suppose if you asked Megan, she would suggest that Monday, in fact, owns me. I would agree. My particular dog is not a possession, like my computer or stereo or truck. She is not something disposable, something with a lease buy-out option or who contributes to my credit rating.

I wholeheartedly disagree with what I saw at this pet store and am saddened to think that it was just one of many pet stores that entice ignorant buyers with low prices and incentives at the expense of education and social responsibility. I also am uncomfortable with the purchasing of purebred dogs from breeders, be they reputable or not. While many breeders are conscientious and loving when it comes to their animals, the fact remains that there are thousands of animals in shelters all over the world who would make wonderful pets, perhaps even superior pets. Breeders exist because consumers are often more concerned with the image their pet portrays to the neighbours than with the health and wellness of the animal or the true reason behind animal ownership, that being the companionship and unquestioning devotion we all seek. Inbreeding among 'purebred' lines is another one of the quiet and dirty secrets of the pet-selling sector and is another issue (and rant) altogether.

I provide links on this website to reputable and conscientious shelters for abandoned animals in and around the Edmonton area. These not for profit societies exist because of puppy mills, irresponsible breeders, and (perhaps most of all) irresponsible owners who see owning a pet as a social status symbol or who lease a pet without doing adequate research into pet ownership and all it entails. The SPCA would not need to exist if people viewed animals as living things rather than mere possessions to be discarded when Snuggles shits on the rug.

Monday is a mutt and I love that about her. I don't care that she isn't purebred or that she doesn't have some pedigree behind her. That isn't what makes a good pet. What makes a good pet is a good owner, someone who is willing to make room for an animal in their lives and who doesn't buy an animal because it is the cool thing to do or because the animal makes them look tough. Your pet, be it good or bad, is a direct reflection upon your dedication to making it part of your family.

The odd thing was that it took all of my willpower to walk out of that store without a puppy. Or puppies. I would have liked nothing better than to buy them all and save them from an uncertain fate. I know that to buy them would only contribute to the bloody machine that is the pet-selling industry and it was with that raw thought and a heavy heart, that I slumped out of the store. To say I was conflicted would be an understatement.

We went on our way and soon were back to our regular lives. That little dog however, and all the little dogs that are yet to come, remains in a sector of society that is overlooked and underregulated, a sector of society that does more to ruin lives than to enhance them.

I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals" (so called) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. ~Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, 1907

A sovereign thought, delivered to your door at 6:38 PM ~~ 6 bonsai trees

shout out out out out out

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