Bok (2011), "Keeping Pets"

Hilary Bok, “Keeping Pets.” Chapter 26, pages 769-795, in The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics, Tom L. Beauchamp and R. G. Frey, editors, Oxford University Press, 2011.

• Pets have interests that should be taken into consideration.

• Pets live in environments that are not designed for them, and pets are dependent on their human partners.

• When a human elects to sever a relationship with a pet, it often implies imprisonment or death for the pet -- this is not the case for intra-human sunderings.

• We cannot explain to our pets why we need them to follow certain rules, nor come to an explicit understanding about allowable behavior; again, these limitations do not similarly mark intra-human relationships. 

• "...we are responsible for ensuring that our pets do not pose a danger to other humans. This is a duty we owe not just to those humans but to our pets, since nonhuman animals who attack humans are normally killed [p. 772]."

• Unlike wild animals, dogs are trainable and care about how we feel about them. Dogs can control their behavior, and are sufficiently reliable that we might let them interact with small children. (Chimpanzees are not so reliable.) But the lack of a common language still puts a limit on the extent of agreed-upon reciprocity we can expect with dogs.

• Bok does not think that pet ownership is ethically wrong, even given the property status of pets. Current legal structures do not require that we treat our pets in a morally questionable manner (p. 776) -- though those structures might grant rights to humans that they should not have. 

• "...if someone who wants to take a dog into her home allows the law to describe her as 'owning' that dog, but does not allow this fact either to affect her treatment of her dog or to perpetuate that legal system, and if the alternative is allowing domestic dogs to die out altogether, it is hard to see how her action harms her pet in any way [p. 777]."

• The decision to acquire a pet is rather high-stakes and requires careful consideration: "To adopt an animal as a pet is to undertake to meet her needs, and to accept the responsibility of ensuring that one's relationship with her is good for all concerned [p. 778]." Again, wild animals do not make suitable pets, and when they nevertheless are adopted, they often end up in cages.

• Pet dogs have to be taught, though this teaching need not involve the exercise of power. "The most basic function of training is to enable us to tell dogs not to do something when it is very important that they not do it, to teach them to avoid behavior that is dangerous to themselves or to others, and to teach them how to function in human society [p. 783]."

• Sometimes dog training does require the exercise (but not abuse) of power. It is an unkindness to your dog not to make sure that it can live a "safe and decent life [p. 783]."

• Pet dogs that remain vicious and pose a danger to humans need to be put down -- our efforts to otherwise shield humans from our dog will prove insufficient. The issue is whether the dog is put down before or after it attacks someone (p. 785). 

• Despite emphasizing the occasional need for pet owners to make difficult decisions, Bok's article ends on an upbeat note: "For the most part, owning pets involves not serious moral dilemmas but minor inconveniences set against a background of wonder, delight, and the joy of opening our hearts to animals who are so willing to open theirs to us [p. 791]."