People have a long history of relationship with the domestication of creatures from the wild. If we trace back our roots before the dawn of civilization, we were once creatures of the wild. The global pandemic has brought upon us a civilizational recess. We have lost out touch with the more complex social orders we had previously established and are returning to the simpler joys of life. One of these is animal husbandry. There has been a surge in pet adoption during the pandemic, with isolated humans looking for companionship in four-legged or many-legged friends.
And subsequently, pets regularly go about as “social substitutes” through these turbulent times. There is some proof that pet presence at home might prompt prosperity in individuals and the improvement of social abilities in young children. Psycho-social therapy treatments facilitated by pets are pretty popular, and they target fostering social abilities in patients based on forming human connections. There is, anyway, an absence of clear, logical information that would help characterize the most suitable strategies or species. Enhancements are noticed, however again, important analytical information is generally absent.
Pets regularly look for warmth and affection and appreciate collaborating with human beings. Successful adoptions and rehabilitations of strays or welcoming a new animal into one’s life can evoke positive feelings. Human-animal interaction incorporates adjustment, cooperative learning, and conceivably connection or holding dependent on correspondence and social cognizance. The relationship of humans with animals has been fraught with tension as we constantly overstep the boundaries of nature and encroach upon animal habitats. Therefore, it is up to us as a species to right the wrongs and embark together on the redefinition of the human-animal relationship. Our relationship with animals is additionally impacted by our own human attributes, like the individual commonality to other creatures (which is why we find ourselves bonding well with mammals) and the information we receive about animals.
The consideration of creatures as vibrant individuals in their own right is a significant prerequisite to undoing the damage that we have caused our furry friends. Present-day life, for the most part, is exceedingly different from our past of animal husbandry. There is a growing consciousness of the atrocities that animals are subjected to in capitalistic societies. Some of the damage is being undone through popular movements like veganism and the rise of sustainable, eco-friendly culture. In our more industrialized and metropolitan, and fast-paced lives, the surest way to develop empathy for animals is through pets; the creatures we live with keep on conveying extraordinary social and emblematic weight.
Indeed, pets are progressively seen as offering us substantial advantages – as treatment creatures, associates to individuals who are visually impaired or debilitated, and allies to the individuals who are socially disconnected. Pets are regularly said to furnish particular medical advantages to those with mental, social, or actual issues. Human beings as a species have come to realise that it is advantageous to collaborate with the other living beings we share the planet with to forge a common language – a perspective that is neither human nor animal, but a unique blend of both.
Author
Isabella Panthenal is a Journalism, Literature and Psychology Undergraduate, with a fascination for all things that stem from the human psyche. She is a homegrown environmentalist on her quest to sustainability.