Do we love our pets to death?

Pets are more popular than ever. According to the American Pet Products Association, about two-thirds of American households own at least one pet, up from 56% in 1988, and Americans spent $136.8 billion on their pets in 2022, up from $123.6 billion in 2021. An estimated 91 million households in Europe own at least one pet, up from 20 million in the last decade. The pet population in India reached 31 million in 2021, up from 10 million in 2011.

And our pets are becoming more like us — or at least that seems to be our goal. We pamper them with personalized diets and backpack carriers, hydrotherapy for dogs and stays in boutique cat hotels. At All the Best, an upscale pet store chain in Seattle, the most popular items are cat and dog toys designed to stimulate and keep the animals happy, who are increasingly “laying around alone and bored,” says Annie McCall, the chain’s marketing director.

Now some animal welfare ethicists and veterinary scientists are wondering whether we have gone too far in our efforts to humanize our pets. The more we treat pets like humans, they argue, the more limited and dependent on us they become in their lives and the more health and behavioral problems they develop.

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“Today, we view pets not just as family members, but as equals to children,” says James Serpell, professor emeritus of ethics and animal welfare at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. “The problem is that dogs and cats are not children, and their owners have become increasingly protective and restrictive. As a result, animals cannot live out their own canine and feline natures as freely as they perhaps could.”

The health risks, of course, begin with breeding. One of the most popular dog breeds in the United States is the French Bulldog, a member of the brachycephalic family of flat-faced dogs that bond well with people but suffer from other serious health problems.

But we are also changing our animals’ relationship with their environment. Many cats now spend their entire lives indoors, fearful of birds of prey. Until the late 1970s, even city dogs spent most of their time outside, either in backyards or roaming freely. Today, says Jessica Pierce, a Colorado bioethicist whose work focuses on the relationship between animals and humans, “the free-roaming dog is seen as a violation of the natural order of things.”

One of the fastest-growing market segments is the so-called pet confinement sector, which includes cages and indoor fences as well as head harnesses and electronic collars. “The restriction placed on dogs is enormous,” Pierce said. Although dogs were more likely to be hit by cars several decades ago, she added, “those risks were outweighed by the freedom of experience and movement.”

The modern pet paradox, in short: “Owners don’t want dogs to behave like dogs,” Serpell said.

Although dogs are allowed in more and more human areas – restaurants, offices, shops, hotels and even in more and more parks with designated dog runs – their increasing presence has not led to greater independence for the animals.

Confinement and isolation, in turn, have led to an increase in separation anxiety and aggression in animals, Serpell said. About 60% of cats and dogs are now overweight or obese. And partly because of the stresses and costs that come with modern pet ownership – veterinarian fees, pet sitters, boarding costs – more people are surrendering their animals to shelters, leading to higher euthanasia rates. In 2023, more than 359,000 dogs were euthanized in shelters, a five-year high, according to Shelter Animals Count, an animal welfare group.

“We’re going through a weird phase of pet obsession,” Pierce said. “There are too many of them and we keep them too intensely. It’s not good for us and it’s not good for them.”

Admittedly, taming an animal has always meant striking a balance between its nature and ours. “Defining freedom for a dog, an animal that has been artificially domesticated and selected by humans for so long, is a really interesting puzzle,” said Alexandra Horowitz, a dog cognition researcher at Barnard College.

She compared this to free-roaming dogs, a category that includes most of the world’s estimated 900 million dogs. Free-roaming dogs have shorter lives and no guarantee of food, Horowitz noted, but they can make all their own choices. “That’s an interesting model for us — thinking about how to make a dog’s life richer in choices so they’re not at the mercy of our whims all the time, without endangering society as a whole,” she said.

In recent years, Scandinavian countries have begun to ban the breeding of some dog breeds that are particularly prone to disease, such as the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. In Sweden, it is illegal to leave pets alone at home for long periods of time; in both Sweden and Finland, it is illegal in most cases to keep animals in cages at home.

But whether this animal welfare policy solves or exacerbates the fundamental paradox of modern pet ownership is unclear, says Harold Herzog, a professor emeritus of psychology at Western Carolina University who studies relationships between animals and humans. “The more we view dogs and cats as autonomous creatures, the less we can justify keeping them as pets,” he says.

A few years ago, Herzog was vacationing on the island of Tobago and spent a lot of time observing the stray dogs that roamed the countryside. “I asked myself, ‘Would I rather be a pampered dog living in Manhattan or would I rather be a dog in Tobago hanging out with his friends?'” Herzog said. He concluded, “I’d rather be a dog in Tobago.”

That’s not a practical option for most people, and it’s not necessarily good for the Tobagos of the world. Instead, Serpell offered this advice to the modern pet owner: “By all means, enjoy the company of your dog. But dogs are not people. Get to know the animal from its own perspective, rather than forcing it to conform to yours. That way you can live vicariously through another being’s life.”

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