Trying to figure out WTF is going on I am repulsed by the very idea of keeping a living creature as a pet, a plaything, an adornment, a fashion accessory, a status symbol, or a crutch for an ailing ego. The dog fetish is particularly offensive given the number of children killed, maimed, and traumatised in dog attacks every year. If an imported toy were causing so much harm to children, there would be uproar. But the pet industry is very lucrative and well-protected by legislators and media manipulators. Allied with the pet cult it promotes, the pet industry wields a massive amount of largely unseen and unaccountable power. It ensures that the public are conditioned from an early age to regard making pets of animals as a normal and essential part of life. Conditioning which is constantly reinforced. For example, you will rarely see a movie or TV show without a dog. This is product placement. Once people are 'captured' by the pet cult, they can be milked by the pet industry for the rest of their lives. Of course, pet fetishists will vehemently reject any suggestion that they have been psychologically manipulated. There is little point in telling a cult member that they are a member of a cult. The first rule of the cult is that it is not a cult. The cult is only visible to those who have never been captured, or those who have escaped. I am part of the latter group. The cultish nature of the individual and collective behaviour of pet fetishists is plainly apparent to me. Most of those outside the cult refrain from comment on it for fear of the venomous reaction of cult members. Meanwhile, the profit-takers in the pet industry enjoy their dividends and bonuses smug in the certainty that they have found a guaranteed source of abundant revenue. The pet industry is huge and highly profitable. But it is in the nature of such enterprises that they are never satisfied. They crave growth. They forever seek new markets or to expand existing markets. The estimated dog population in the UK is 12 million. But at around 17,000 dogs per 100,000 people, the UK is well down the league table. The equivalent figure in the US and Brazil is 26,000. In Hungary, it is 29,000. Not even that level of penetration satisfies the pet industry, however. They are constantly striving to increase the number of pets because pets make profits. The annual UK spend on pet dogs alone is £10billion. The pet food market is estimated to be worth £3.3billion (In a country where children go hungry!). But the pet industry always finds new ways of squeezing more money out of the pet cult. Dog fetishists spend a fortune of 'treats' - around £500million annually. The impact of the pet industry's obsessive need for growth is all around us. The current fashion is for 'dog-friendly' spaces that previously were mainly or exclusively for people. Restaurants, cafes, and hotels boast of their 'dog-friendliness'. If your preference is for people-friendly establishments, you're right out of luck. All of this has been engineered by the pet industry. No 'conspiracy' is suggested. No 'conspiracy' is required. Just the 'normal' working of a cancerous economic system. In all of this, the sizeable chunk of the human population outside the pet cult is expected to quietly accept the imposition of others' fetishes. To complain is to invite a frenzy of abuse. Those of us who prefer not to eat, drink, and reside in a menagerie are treated as the 'other'. The pet cult insists on its 'right' to impose their animals on everyone else regardless of any inconvenience or discomfort or distress caused. The more spaces are given over to pets, the more pets there will be. Which means more revenue for the pet industry, with each additional pet assuring the industry of at least another £4,000 - £5,000 every year. Now, Mad Maggie Chapman wants to deny me the choice of a pet free place to live. I am to be obliged to suffer in silence the noise, smell, and mess left by other's pets in and around the building I call home. I doubt if her amendment is being directly supported by the pet industry. They have no real need to lobby legislators. The pet cult will do all the pressuring that is required. But I'm sure the profit-takers are duly grateful for Mad Maggie's service. Sources: World Population Review, Dogster You're currently a free subscriber to Peter A Bell. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment