On the obligation of nobility and pets
What we owe to animals and what they can teach us
As some readers would know, I obtained my first pet in a long time as an adult at the beginning of the year. Since then have merrily spent considerable amounts of money on buying it accessories (just as well the cat was free, which is a considerable saving on a pedigree cat). So I have occasionally been pondering how we, with a Christian understanding of the world, should relate to pets and the resources we invest in them.
I have always believed in the care and conservation of creatures, as evidenced in my university degree, and that humans have a responsibility to ensure their survival. But pets seem to be ’next level’ in the care and investment they receive from us. It is curious, though, that when money is seen being spent on animals, be they wild or domestic, it is often frowned upon very quickly as money that would be better spent on starving children. What is especially odd is that people don’t immediately frown when money is spent on excessively large houses or fast cars, world trips, stylish furniture or new and unnecessary technologies.
Is that because we think houses and cars and furniture and travel and technology are beneficial and necessary to our (more valuable) human lives in a way that pets or the wild creatures aren’t? The statistics on the benefits of keeping pets (or spending time in nature - not to mention maintaining healthy ecosystems), might actually suggest otherwise … Or is it that, as they’re living creatures, investing resources in animals comes closer to and so reminds us more of all the starving children?
Yet, financial investment aside, in the expansive nature of love, loving a pet only increases, rather than diminishes, our capacity to love the world and others.*
Thus, I was very interested to come upon an unexpected comment on owning pets while reading Alistair McGrath’s biography of CS Lewis. It hits on a number of points I’ve pondered around the keeping of animals, such as where they sit in relation to humans, what we owe to them and what they can teach us.
For Lewis, the true mark of the primacy of humans over animals is “acknowledging duties to them which they do not acknowledge to us.” Noblesse oblige, as the French say. Human dignity demands that humans show respect for animals. More than that, animals can enable human beings to develop compassion and care. Lewis’s theology of creation leads him to insist that human relationships with animals can be ennobling and fulfilling—both for animals and for humans.”
~ Alistair McGrath, CS Lewis: A Life
The Gottman Institute, famous for its research and advice on (human) relationships, recently featured an instagram post about what pets can teach us. Namely: Love is what makes a family; Ask for consent before you pet; A bid for attention doesn’t have to be verbal; Take a few minutes to play; Nonverbal communication is important; Everyone likes treats and new toys; Daily rituals, like morning cuddles, are worth the time; Slow down, spend quality time together; Being consistent creates trust.
It has brought me joy to find ways to enrich the life of my furry companion, and satisfaction to see the way he notices and responds and purrs like a small engine when he’s pleased and comfortable. Taking him out on a harness to spend time outdoors indeed makes me slow down and poke around and sniff the world with him. I sense it is good for me to have a dependent, of sorts, in my life, who relies on me to show up and come home. And I will also now find satisfaction in knowing it can be ennobling and teach me compassion and school me in some of the basics of relationships, both human and animal, along the way.
* I was pondering these ideas when Tish Harrison Warren wrote a subscriber opinion piece in New York Times, on pets, moral logic and love, called How a scrawny rescue dog taught me a lesson love, which quotes Karen Swallow Prior on Lessons from Loving and Losing a Pet from Christianity Today. Both articles expand on things I might otherwise have been trying to articulate.