By: Yiling Sun

Do you ever wonder how popular pets are? Almost two-thirds of Americans have at least one pet, whether it’s a snake or a hamster. According to the American Pet Products Association, Americans spent $136.8 billion on just their pets in 2022. In Europe, about 91 million households own at least one pet, which is a lot of pets! In India, the total pet population in 2021 is 31 million. That’s crazy, since a decade before that, it was a third of that population!

Our pets are being spoiled everyday with all sorts of flavorful treats. It’s like feeding your child their favorite candies every single day. Some people even give their pets massages—you’d be surprised at the number of cats with cucumbers on their eyes laying on a soft, cushy bed.

Pet owners don’t just buy spa materials for their pets—they buy so many fun toys, too. Many pet owners go to All the Best, a high-end pet store chain in Seattle, which sells mostly cat and dog toys. These owners buy so many toys and other things for their pets to enjoy, making some animal scientists wonder if they’ve spoiled their pets too much. They argue that the more we treat pets as if they were fellow humans, the more they will depend on us to live, and the more health and behavioral problems they will have.

James Serpell, an emeritus professor of ethics and animal welfare at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, believes that people now view their pets as their children. “The problem is, dogs and cats are not children, and owners have become increasingly protective and restrictive,” he said. “So, animals are not able to express their own doggy and catty natures as freely as they might.”

The more that pets become dependent on humans, the more we want to interact with them. Us humans bred many different species of dogs together, leading to more health risks. Some animals really love humans, but have pretty dangerous health issues.

Because animals have health issues, humans will take control and shelter them, bringing them to their brand new human home. But health issues aren’t the only thing keeping pets indoors all the time; most cats spend their life indoors because of the fear of too many birds being hunted if cats are left outside.

“Owners don’t want dogs to act like dogs,” Dr. Serpell said.

Now, around 60% of cats and dogs are overweight or obese. Because they get obese, their owners send them to vets and pay a bunch of money to find out if their furry friends have problems or not. But money has a limit, so these owners can’t afford to own these pets anymore, leading to abandonment. According to Shelter Animals Count, in 2023, more than 359,000 dogs were put in shelters.

“Defining freedom to a dog, an animal that has been domesticated artificially and selected by humans for so long, is a really interesting puzzle,” said Alexandra Horowitz, a canine cognition researcher at Barnard College.

Some countries have even banned keeping certain animals as pets because of the negative effects on the animals freedom and health. In Scandinavian countries, some dog breeds such as the Cavalier King Charles spaniel cannot be bred, because they are more vulnerable to diseases. In Sweden, a pet owner can’t leave their pets alone at home for long periods of time. How are these pet owners in Sweden able to enjoy a long trip without an expensive pet sitter?

Harold Herzog, an emeritus psychology professor at Western Carolina University who studies animal-human relations, believes that rules like these about pet keeping are pretty unclear. “The more we view dogs and cats as autonomous creatures, the less we can justify owning them as pets,” he said.

Dr. Herzog went to the island of Tobago a few years ago and spent most of his time checking out stray dogs around the area. “I asked myself: ‘Would I rather live in Manhattan as a pampered dog, or would I rather be a dog in Tobago hanging out with my friends?’” he said. “I’d rather be a dog in Tobago.”

Pet owners these days are treating their pets as if they were real humans, giving them amazing spas and tasty treats. People do so many other things for their pets, too, such as buying many fun toys for their pets to enjoy, or buying big, expensive pet beds just to see their cat or dog sleep in the box that the bed came in. Is that really too much?