Animals as Pets
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 5 Feb 2024
Dr. Ravi P. Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service
A dog is an animal that frequently becomes part of a family in most parts of the world. It is a useful animal in many ways — it protects the family from theft. A dog is useful in other ways too . A dog can be asked to bring a newspaper from outside the home. When an outsider comes to the home of the owner, it barks to inform the owner that someone is outside the home. Whether to allow the person inside the home or not, is left to the discretion of the owner.
A person who lives alone in a home, a dog gives good company and one can often see the person lovingly cuddling their pet dogs. The dog also somehow knows how to show its affection to the owner, especially if it is a child .
The dog eats non vegetarian food but even if it is served with bread soaked in a bowl of milk, it gladly accepts the food — it shows no tantrums regarding food and milk.
For these reasons and more, many people especially in foreign countries love to have a dog in their homes. I have seen some men in foreign countries having not one or two dogs as pets — they may have five or six dogs as pets. These animals are taken good care by their owners not only in terms of food or milk that is served to them, but also in terms of dress that is worn by these pets. Sometimes these pets are paraded in dog shows. Imagine the pleasure of the owner when their pet wins a prize in the competition!
Normally dogs and cats are considered different species of animals and are not kept as pets by people. They like different foods to eat and need different care by people. But occasionally there are some people who have both a dog and a cat as pets. One of my neighbours has both animals as pets. I once asked him why he kept these different species of animals. His answer was straightforward. He said that normally these two animals cannot stay together but I have managed or trained them to stay together without any problem. When I further asked him about these two, he answered ‘the cat takes care of the rats and the dog keeps the cat good company.’
There are different people with different tastes and attitudes about pets. Once, many years ago when I was studying in USA, one of my friends who had a large house — bungalow where he kept a horse as his pet animal. He did not ride his horse and spent quite a time to take care of the horse. On my asking him about his horse, he haltingly answered that he finds a lot of pleasure in taking care of his horse — one did not have to ride it to seek pleasure.
In India there are some men who have trained different species of animals and make money out of these animals. Some people have trained monkeys to display some tricks that these animals can conjure up and earn some money for their masters. Similarly, some men have trained their cobras for displaying their funny movements to make money. ‘Are you not afraid that the snake will bite you ?’ I asked one snake charmer. The man smiled , ‘No, not after I have treated it properly.’
There are people who have other creatures as pets — a frog for example. Different people, different pets!
No wonder some people and some pets they maintain are novel and provide pleasure to their masters as well as to their neighbours.
I am sure people have other species of pets that provide pleasure — different types of fish that swim together in a fishing vessel kept in a home.
There is no end to people maintaining different types of pets — animals or fish!
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Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, an educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, A Garland of Ideas—Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi. ravipbhatia@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 5 Feb 2024.
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