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posted by martyb on Sunday October 01 2017, @11:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the Bow-Wow-Meow-Squeak! dept.

The recent popularity of "designer" dogs, cats, micro-pigs and other pets may seem to suggest that pet keeping is no more than a fad. Indeed, it is often assumed that pets are a Western affectation, a weird relic of the working animals kept by communities of the past.

About half of the households in Britain alone include some kind of pet; roughly 10m of those are dogs while cats make up another 10m. Pets cost time and money, and nowadays bring little in the way of material benefits. But during the 2008 financial crisis, spending on pets remained almost unaffected, which suggests that for most owners pets are not a luxury but an integral and deeply loved part of the family.

Some people are into pets, however, while others simply aren't interested. Why is this the case? It is highly probable that our desire for the company of animals actually goes back tens of thousands of years and has played an important part in our evolution. If so, then genetics might help explain why a love of animals is something some people just don't get.

[...] The pet-keeping habit often runs in families: this was once ascribed to children coming to imitate their parents' lifestyles when they leave home, but recent research has suggested that it also has a genetic basis. Some people, whatever their upbringing, seem predisposed to seek out the company of animals, others less so.

Is the desire to keep pets really hard-wired in our DNA?


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 02 2017, @08:29AM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 02 2017, @08:29AM (#575818) Journal

    Mmm-hmmm - I agree that a good double-blind study would be great.

    One anecdote for you. Met a guy years ago, with whom I worked, off and on, on several construction jobs. I kinda liked him. Not a best buddy or anything, but I thought pretty highly of him, both from a professional point of view, and personally. Had reason to bring him to the house, and the dog did NOT like him, and, in retrospect, the dog positively would NOT allow him to get close to the kids. I didn't worry to much about it, neither the associate nor the dog seemed to go out of his way to provoke the other, and the kids had little interest in the man.

    About two years later, dude was arrested for child molestation. I happened to know one of the kids involved, and eventually we talked over a few beers one evening. The arrest wasn't any mistake, if anything, there weren't enough charges filed. Seems that the man would groom 12 and 13 year old kids, and by the time they were 17 or 18, he no longer had any use for them. One of those rinse and repeat things.

    Maybe a feedback somewhere in there, but I can't see it.

    If that were an isolated incident, I would be less convinced that dogs can sense on things like that.

    As for that young man - he was a little messed up for awhile, but eventually got his shit together. Give him the opportunity, he can still cry in his beer, and curse the son of a bitch who molested him, but he's pretty stable and productive.

    --
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  • (Score: 2) by tfried on Monday October 02 2017, @08:10PM

    by tfried (5534) on Monday October 02 2017, @08:10PM (#576149)

    An anecdote for an anecdote.

    I'm rather a cat-type person, not much into dogs. However, I usually get along fine with dogs, and in fact many dogs seem to distinctively like me. But then there was this one time, when a friends' dog was dead serious about attacking me. Call me a coward, but when that cross-breed with a lot of German Shepard in it came running onto me, I chose to flee into the bathroom, and wait for my friends to lock away the dog before opening the door, again. In hindsight, I think I do understand (some of) the path of events that lead up to this. Importantly, I did not respond well to some early signs of the dog's aggression towards me. But for all I can tell, it's still absolutely fair to say that this dog was hostile to me from the start (several visits earlier).

    At any rate, that encounter with this dog did leave a permanent mutual dent in my relation with those friends.

    Well, maybe I am a bad person, after all. But then I seem to be able to fool a whole lot of other dogs, quite successfully.