By: Allen Huang

Do you have a pet? Perhaps a hamster, a dog, a cat, maybe even a bird? Now, what is the thing you want most for your pet? Is it large space? Perhaps even the highest quality food? Well, you may or may not be spoiling them, and there is such a thing as spoiling animals. There is always something that you can overdo if your not careful, whether it is drowing your pet in luxury or overfeeding your animal friend.

Over the last 30 years, pets have become a popular part of people’s lives, as 57 percent of the world population have at least one pet, but at the same time, people who don’t know how to take care of pets treat their pets as humans, giving them luxurious lives and gourmet level food, damaging their bank balance, and destroying their lives while being stuck with their animal. The idea that pets need to live like royalty is the equivalent to converting a pet into a human, treating them like children instead of pets. Animals are not humans, and while humans can be considered an animal to some, the same idea can not go the opposite way. If you treat a dog like a human, not only are you going the extra mile for your pet only to potentially mentally harm yourself, but you can even harm your pet’s physical health. Most pet owners nowadays always have their pets contained, putting them in leashes instead of letting them run loose in the backyard or at the park. Animals, especially dogs need to do something with their energy– not just play with toys. You can let your pets outside and run loose in the backyard or even in the house. Let them live and move around a little. Another good thing is teaching them tricks, or letting them hunt for food, perhaps treats, in the house to sharpen their mind while still having fun.

Then you have pet owners who think they can handle a pet, but then reality hits them hard. These owners then have to give up their pets and put them in either animal shelters, or abandon them somewhere else. However, all of these situations have been mainly in the United States. In European countries, some dog breeds have been banned, such as in Scandinavia, where breeds that are prone to infectious diseases, like the Cavalier King Charles spaniel, have been banned. Meanwhile in Sweden and Finland, dogs are to not be left home alone, or be put in crates as some dogs can become restless,, break the cage if the walls are weak enough, or even harm themselves.

Nowadays, dogs in most homes in the U.S. are contained and restricted by their owners, being pampered or spoiled to a degree that they become overweight. So, are dogs being too spoiled? The simple answer is yes, but depending on who you ask, there will always be multiple different meanings to “spoiled” to different people, sometimes it can mean that they get a lot of toys and good food to some, and to others it means giving them a five-star meal or rare and expensive toys. With all this wrapping into one big ball, it is clear that the “ball” we are making is just an example of spoiling pets. In order to properly treat a pet like a pet, find an in between level of the minimum for animal care and the spoiled side of animal care. Not something too much, but not something so little that your pet decreases in health. This also goes into basically every animal you can keep, not just dogs or cats, but hamsters, birds, and even a fish can be kept alive and well for a long time with this.