The Family Dog: Why We Treat Our Companion Animals Like Royalty

This essay discusses the role of dogs in human homes, explores the animal-human bond, and references various research studies on these subjects. It notes that despite the current economic downturn, the companion animal products industry grew by $2 billion in 2008 to $45 billion in sales. There are 69 million households with companion animals in the U.S.

According to this essay, interest in living with companion animals has been transformed by a less connected, lonelier society, where such companionship is more valuable than ever. Consequently, dogs have become more humanized. Various surveys, including a 2001 survey by the American Animal Hospital Association showed that 83% of companion animal owners refer to themselves as “mommy” or “daddy.”

A 2008 study in the Journal of Business Research traced the changing depictions of animals in magazine advertisements and found humans predominantly strolling with their dogs outdoors in the 1920s, dogs shown in the living room in mid-century, and by the end of the century, dogs were being shown mostly in the bedroom.

As further evidence of this humanization, companion animal foods are now marketed to human anxieties and are often made from human-grade or organic meat. There has also been an increase in the number of those studying veterinary medicine for small animals, in part because medical procedures are becoming more complex.

In a 2007 article, University of Chicago professor Nicholas Epley and three colleagues determined that subjects who were less socially connected were more likely to attribute human emotional characteristics to dogs. In other studies dating from the 1970s, heart-attack patients recover faster with companion animals than without. A 1979 study of Swedish dog owners found that four in five of them agreed with the statement “the dog makes friends for me.”