OK, so none of us have or ever will (probably) live with a hairy, ice-age elephant cousin, but watching a program on extinct, prehistoric animals got me thinking about our expectations in our relationships with dogs (and cats too).
I was having yet another fit of insomnia, and while channel surfing I discovered "Prehistoric Park" on Animal Planet. It's billed as docu-fiction, a kind of "Jurassic Park" meets "Hatri!", via "Timeline". A time-traveling zoologist (Nigel Marven) captures soon-to-be extinct animals and brings them back to the present day to live in his "exotic" animal sanctuary. As a sci-fi lover, and only news, sports and infomercials as alternatives, I decided to suspend my disbelief and watch.
As I joined the program, Nigel was collecting a woolly mammoth. The specimen was found starving and injured, mourning the loss of her herd-mate who had fallen in a kill-pit dug by cavemen. Nigel and his staff managed to get her back on her feet, through the time portal and into the safety of the Park. However, after several days it was apparent to the Park staff that the mammoth, named Martha, was unhappy and dying. I was silently screaming "She's a herd animal, why the hell are you keeping her isolated!!!", while Nigel and the staff veterinarian where trying new foods and doing blood tests. "Why do you go back and save her herd-mate?!?!?! For cryn'out loud, if you can go back once, why not go back again!?!?!" I mumbled under my breath.
In the next commercial break, I had a BFF (blinding flash of the obvious) - we humans, in our arrogance and ignorance don't always consider the needs of the animals we bring into our lives. We expect animals to set aside their basic natures in order to live in the world we want to live in.
Dogs are a case in point and particularly relevant to me, given the ongoing problems of my furry-friend, "Moose-boy". Dogs are social animals, yet we expect them to live much of their time alone, while we're out working and playing. We don't give them the attention, exercise, training, environments, food, toys they need because as "owners" we expect our dogs to forget their basic natures in order to live in the world WE want to live in.
Back to the program....
After several stressful moments and commercial breaks, Nigel and Co. finally decided that yes indeed, Martha needed friends. However, instead of going back in time for her friend, a "simpler" plan was agreed upon. They introduced Martha, a very woolly mammoth, to a herd of modern elephants. They did this through a rather flimsy looking 5 or 6 foot wooden fence. They talked a lot about how elephant herds will often kill a strange elephant if they don't like the look of her.
Yes I know this is science fiction and that Martha was a CGI - no one was going to get hurt. However, back in real world, we expect all sorts of animals to just get along, whether they're a good match or not, again, just because it's what WE want. Puppies and kittens aren't socialized properly and are intolerant of other animals and people. We take on a second or third animal without making proper introductions - or without considering whether our first dog or cat really WANT a friend. And we certainly demand our animals get along no matter what - at dog parks, on the street, at family gatherings - and then blame the critters when there are problems.
Back to the program...
The next hurdle for Martha was the temperature - the Park is in a rather warm climate and Martha is an ice-age animal. Do they ship her to another park in the Arctic? Do they walk her above the snow line of one of the local mountains? Nope - they give her a hair cut!
How many cold-climate dogs (Newfoundland, Husky, St. Bernard, for example) suffer through the summer in Florida, Texas or southern California? How many of these normally shaggy dogs get buzz cuts to help them through the summer heat? Again, we don't take our animal's needs, we attempt to mold them into what WE want them to be.
The next time you think about adopting a new pet or if you're having issues with a pet you already live with, please think about what THEY need to be happy, not just trying to get them to change to suit you. I'm certainly not recommending that you spoil them rotten, but consider their needs first, even if it means changing YOUR lifestyle.
(If I could go back in time, I would certainly get Moose-boy's friend before she disappeared....)
No comments:
Post a Comment