Q: How popular are pets in America?
A. Over 60 percent of American households are involved in pet keeping. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association has some good statistics on its web site, [www.appma.org].
Q: There has been a decline in Americans’ need to keep working animals. What are some factors that have led to the spike in pet popularity in the 20th and 21st centuries?
A. We don’t often think of it this way, but pet keeping is a form of leisure and an important component of private life at home, so you have to study it in that context. We can look at the practice as an “expressive behavior,” something that gives people pleasure and actually enhances social interaction. Take a look at all the funny pet videos on the web—skateboarding dogs, cats playing in water or chasing a laser light—and both the owners and the pets are clearly having fun.
Q: Pets’ popularity seems only to be growing. In the upsurge, have you noticed any trends?
A. Pet ownership is subject to fads because it is tied into the world of consumption. Animal fads can have bad consequences, unfortunately—animals that do not receive proper care or relinquishments to shelters when owners realize that they have made a mistake. In the past 10 years or so, a number of small mammals suddenly turned up in pet shops: African pygmy hedgehogs, sugar gliders (a small marsupial), even prairie dogs!
With dogs, I see two trends that are sort of mirror images of one another: the craze for small purebred dogs (many having been bred in puppy mills) and “designer dogs” like labradoodles and puggles and, at the same time, increasing interest in rescuing dogs from shelters, especially mixed breed dogs, and concern about overbred dogs.
Q: You’re a material culture historian who has seen a great deal of pet paraphernalia. What is the most extravagant accessory you’ve come across?
A. Well, in a pet boutique in New York, I did see real fur coats for small dogs. What I think is interesting is that we are relatively open about how people spend their disposable income, but for some reason, buying a dog a Christmas present gets condemned as excessive. You have to look at consumer behavior broadly; pet keeping is a tiny part of consumer society actually (about $36 billion last year).
Q: Do you think especially smart pets can become susceptible to materialism?
A. No, they are actually a good corrective to our materialistic tendencies. For your cat or dog or bunny, every day is a new day, a fresh start, and they need very little in the way of material goods to be happy. What they do need, along with the basics of good food and housing and preventive medical care, is your attention, the most valuable thing you have to offer, really.
Q: With the pet product industry in America grossing well into the billions each year, do you think pet owners are getting carried away? Or is it perhaps that the marketing is just catching up to the niche?
A. It’s both things. Some products really do enhance the well-being of animals. The scratching post was a great invention for both cats and their owners. On the other hand, mechanical litter boxes seem a little excessive.
Q: With a foreseeable energy crisis looming, do you ever see pets falling from grace back into working-class roles, en masse?
A. No. Pet keeping is actually a relatively inexpensive form of leisure, compared to buying consumer electronics or running a motorboat. If you want to reduce your carbon profile, open your front door and take your dog for a long walk rather than going to the mall. Spend an hour just watching your fish tank. Your blood pressure will drop, I guarantee.
Q: In researching your book and in curating the upcoming show, have you ever worried that our love for our pets is absurd?
A. If you stop and really think about it, most human activities have absurd sides. I don’t worry about that. What I worry about is if and when our behavior is cruel or thoughtless, bad for the animals. We need to be good stewards of the animals we bring into our lives.
Q: What pets do you have in your current menagerie of rescue animals?
A. We have two cats and two dogs, all mixed breeds adopted from shelters, along with a tortoise, one fish named Neon Leon and a horse who thinks he is a dog.