By: Maggie Z

As of 2024, pets are more popular than ever before, but pet owners all around the world are treating their animal friends less like pets and more like children. While this might be delightful to see, many experts say that this phenomenon isn’t good for either the pets or the owners.

According to the American Pet Products Association, around two-thirds of American households contain at least one pet (up from 56% in 1988), Americans spent $136.8 billion on their pets in 2022 (up from $123.6 billion in 2021), and about 91 million homes in Europe have at least one pet (a 20 million increase over the past decade). To top off these unbelievable statistics, there are over 31 million animal inhabitants in India as of 2021 (a 21 million increase from 2011).

Aside from the astonishing number of pets in the world, pet owners are now treating their pets in what seems like an attempt to make them more like us. “We now view pets not only as family members but as equivalent to children,” said James Serpell, a professor of animal welfare at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. “The problem is, dogs and cats are not children, and owners have become increasingly protective and restrictive. So animals are not able to express their own doggy and catty natures as freely as they might.” As a result, the pets’ lives have become more restrained, and they are more dependent on humans. This dependency can lead pets to develop an increasing amount of health and behavioral problems.

At All the Best, an exclusive pet chain store in Seattle, the most popular items are recreation toys for their pets that are designed to bring happiness to animals that “are lying around alone and bored,” said Annie McCall, the chain’s marketing director.

Owning and loving a pet is not a bad thing: in fact, studies have shown that people who own pets are happier and live longer. We just shouldn’t try to humanize them. After all, a pet is a pet!