Is human relationship with pets useful
Animals started to live side by side with people thousands of years ago. In ancient Egypt people known to keep dogs to protect their houses and lands. Remains of the dogs and cats were found, for example, in ancient burial sites in Egypt. While big animals like horses or cows were used to work and to provide food, small animals, like cats, or birds, obviously were kept for fun and companionship. With all the progress going on, it is not necessary to keep animal to survive, but, amazingly, the population and the variety of home pets is growing. I believe it has some positive sides and some negative.
I heard from many of my friends, that there is nothing like coming home tonight and being greeted by a dog or a cat. They say, it takes all the daily stress away and provides immediate relaxation. And there is no need to talk! I read a few articles in medical magazines, that cats can help people with all kind of body pains, just rubbing off the sore spot. Their warm and energy provide some therapeutic effect. Another positive aspect of having a dog, for example, is that people have to go outside, regardless of the weather. It gives dog owner constant stimulation to exercise. Some people in my neighborhood are jogging with their dog s, keeping themselves and the dogs healthy.
On the other hand, some negative tendencies were shown recently. Needless to say pet owners are very fond of their animal friends. Some people treat them as their children and more and more often prefer them to real people, even kids. It happened, that when a dog threatened the child in the park, the owner would not call the dog and would let it harm the kid. Besides that, I don’t think it is healthy for people to escape their relationship problem and create and extra tight binds with an animal. We all know that animal’s lives are shorter, than people’s are, and the loss of the favorite pet can be just devastating. Another example is the growing fashion trend to keep exotic and dangerous animas as pets, such as crocodiles, lizards, or snakes. In some cases, it not only illegal, but very dangerous for everybody, even for the owner.
To sum I would like to point out, that friendship between people and animals can be very fulfilling, when it is well-balanced and does not, in any way, harms one side or another.
