I quite admire Lairds consideration towards animals. We need more people who think like this going forward if we are going to grow as a species regarding our treatment of animals as a whole. Animals are gaining more rights each year seemingly, and I hope we can continue to further this.
I don’t have any experience with horses, nor do I have a much knowledge about them. I do know something about dogs. Domesticated dogs are quite different from wild animals. They have been changed fundamentally and to their core through human interaction and bonding. It’s not the same thing as taking a lion from the Savannah and throwing it behind a cage to be put on display in a zoo. I really like Rupert Sheldrakes work because it shows how animals are individually and collectively changed through their experiences. What a species experiences as a whole seems to affect future offspring even though this offspring did not have the direct experience themselves. Still, they learn and are changed by the past experiences of their kin. Sheldrake calls this Morphic resonance, I tend to think of it as collective consciousness. Although we probably mean the same thing.
Domesticated dogs are miles away from being true wild animals anymore. They do not require the same things that wild animals require to be psychologically healthy. If you look closely at a zoo animal, it’s a rather sad sight. They seem totally depleted of vitality and energy. Quite literally they seem depressed. This has been widely observed in zoo animals. You don’t get this feeling from domesticated dogs.
Having always had at least 1 dog my entire life, and having spent some time in shelters and lots in dog parks etc, when it comes to domesticated dogs, the well cared for ones, do not lack vitality and happiness. They’ve quite literally grown into their new reality as a species. And this relationship, although likely weighted in the favor of humans) has largely been symbiotic.
if I were to give my rescued 6 pound Chihuahua free range of the neighborhood, between the other dogs of the neighborhood, the cars, and the coyotes, he would likely be dead soon.
When you domesticate a dog, bring it into your home, give it food and protection, that animal is fundamentally changed in a profound way. And in a way which puts it at a major disadvantage to true wild animals out in the wild. Depending upon where you live it could be wildly irresponsible to give that animal free reign. Stray cats generally fare much better than stray dogs, perhaps because they aren’t as domesticated
I do not generally approve of crating dogs, that seems cruel to me, or of many other treatments that dogs sometimes receive. But I think one would be hard pressed to convince me that walking dogs on a leash is immoral or that dogs who are walked on a leash are less happy than dogs who are not. Or that dogs even hate being walked on a leash in the first place. Or, that wild dogs are happier than domesticated dogs. Of course I don’t know this, but it’s my feeling anyways. Dogs love nothing more than to be with their loving owners.
Im really only speaking about dogs here. I feel it’s the only species that I truly know. I don’t approve of keeping birds in a cage, or gerbils in a small tank etc
But the true horror of human/animal involvement is that found within factory meat farming. The meat industry is a truly disgusting and unnatural practice which causes IMMEASURABLE animal suffering. And it’s one that hardly anybody thinks twice about. But their dog gets all the consideration in the world.