Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets

by Jessica Pierce

Overview

A life shared with pets brings many emotions. We feel love for our companions, certainly, and happiness at the thought that we’re providing them with a safe, healthy life. But there’s another emotion, less often acknowledged, that can be nearly as powerful: guilt. When we see our cats gazing wistfully out the window, or watch a goldfish swim lazy circles in a bowl, we can’t help but wonder: are we doing the right thing, keeping these independent beings locked up, subject to our control? Is keeping pets actually good for the pets themselves?
 
That’s the question that animates Jessica Pierce’s powerful Run, Spot, Run. A lover of pets herself (including, over the years, dogs, cats, fish, rats, hermit crabs, and more), Pierce understands the joys that pets bring us. But she also refuses to deny the ambiguous ethics at the heart of the relationship, and through a mix of personal stories, philosophical reflections, and scientifically informed analyses of animal behavior and natural history, she puts pet-keeping to the test. Is it ethical to keep pets at all? Are some species more suited to the relationship than others? Are there species one should never attempt to own? And are there ways that we can improve our pets’ lives, so that we can be confident that we are giving them as much as they give us?
 
Deeply empathetic, yet rigorous and unflinching in her thinking, Pierce has written a book that is sure to help any pet owner, unsettling assumptions but also giving them the knowledge to build deeper, better relationships with the animals with whom they’ve chosen to share their lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226209890
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	05/06/2016
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	954,215
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Jessica Pierce is an internationally acclaimed bioethicist. Her work spans from broad considerations of human responsibilities for nature to detailed explorations of human-animal relationships. She has published eleven books, including Morality Play: Case Studies in Ethics and, most recently, A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World without Humans. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, and Scientific American. Pierce is a faculty affiliate at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School. She lives in the Colorado Rockies.

Table of Contents

A Note on Language ix

Thinking about Spot

1 Awash with Pets 3

2 Neighborhood Menagerie 6

3 Who Are Pets? 10

4 Why Pets? 13

5 Tainted Love 18

Living with Spot

6 Family Constellations 23

7 Why Not 29

8 Sleeping Together 32

9 Stroke Me 35

10 Talk Talk 39

11 Animal Bling 48

12 Butt of the Joke 51

13 Planting Seeds of Empathy 53

14 Pets and Our Health 61

15 Cat Scratch Fever 65

16 Pets and Their Health 68

17 Feeding Frenzy 71

18 Who Should We Feed to Our Pets? 79

19 Your Dog Is Fat! 81

20 Poop 85

21 Animals Bite Back 88

22 Pet and Planet 92

Worrying About Spot

23 Turn Me Loose 101

24 A Boredom Epidemic 111

25 Don't You Want Me? 113

26 Cruelty, Abuse, Neglect 115

27 A Hidden World of Hurt 120

28 Quiz: Cruel Practices 122

29 The Strange World of Animal Hoarding 123

30 The Links 125

31 Heavy Petting 128

32 Licensed to Kill 136

33 Rage against the Dying 143

34 Fatal Plus 149

35 Eunuchs and Virgins 152

36 Breeding Bad 160

37 The Shelter Industry 166

38 Cradle to Grave 176

39 A Living Industry 179

40 Protect the Harvest 184

41 Rent-a-Pet 187

42 The Biggest Loser: Exotic Pets 192

Caring For Spot

43 What Do Pets Need? 199

44 Enriching Animals' Lives 202

45 Which Animals Should Be Pets? 206

46 Offering Better Protection 210

47 Speaking for Spot 213

48 So, Is Pet Keeping Ethical? 217

Notes 221

Bibliography 235

Index 255

Editorial Reviews

Some much needed context for our complicated, contradictory relationships with the animals we don't (usually) eat can be found in this book by Pierce. It's an approachable survey of contemporary pet-keeping in America and its ethical undertones.

The New York Times Book Review - Laurel Braitman

"Even those of us with the best intentions for the dogs, cats, rabbits, and goldfish in our care will discover new, profoundly important ethical questions to ponder in Jessica Pierce's book.  With gentle humor, clear compelling language, and always in search of the physically and emotionally healthiest lives possible for our animal companions, Run, Spot, Run moved me all the more because it's written from the inside looking out. Pierce herself lives with three pets and understands the deep urge so many of us feel to connect across species lines."

Barbara King

"In Run, Spot, Run, Jessica Pierce has produced a timely examination of pet keeping today that challenges our rationalizations and justifications for keeping nonhuman animals of all persuasions for our amusement under conditions that, even at their best, are inadequate and at their worst inhumane. A pet keeper, herself, Pierce makes clear that some animals should not be kept at all while we should re-evaluate and reform our approaches to keeping others, like cats and dogs, who have long lived with us. Anyone thinking of getting an animal of any sort for any reason should first read this book."
 

Mark Derr

"So, you want to share your home with a companion animal? Millions of people make pets out of a wide variety of animals, from dogs and cats to hamsters, gerbils, rats, mice, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, and this decision is one that demands careful attention, for we truly are the individuals' oxygen. Unfortunately, the lives of innumerable pets are intentionally and unintentionally highly compromised—indeed many are simply horrific—because people haven't done their homework about what it means to live with another being or because they are ignorant of just whom the animal is. There are many ethical questions that need careful attention and these quandaries, some obvious and others less so, don't fit into a nice and clean 'right' and 'wrong' mold. Run, Spot, Run will force potential and experienced pet-keepers to think about what they're getting into, and likely mean that many readers will be moved out of their comfort zone. For equitable human-pet relationships to occur, and for animals to be able to express their full behavior repertoire, things are going to have to change. Jessica Pierce confronts many difficult and challenging issues head-on, and I hope her latest book becomes essential reading for those people who make the choice to bring a nonhuman into their lives. Currently, it's all too easy to become a pet-keeper, and this results in many unhappy humans and nonhumans."

Marc Bekoff

"If you have animals in your home—as I do—this is a must-read. Is pet-keeping morally sound, or are its ethics a lot more thorny than we realize? Step outside your intellectual comfort zone, check out this great book by Jessica Pierce, and decide for yourself."

@Seth_mac_farlan - Seth MacFarlane

"Pierce has clearly thought deeply about the 'ambiguous ethics' of pet ownership. . . . There is of course so, so much more to enrichment for pets; I'd recommend starting with Pierce's book if you want to know more."

New York Magazine

"A major contribution to the literature on problems associated with the human-companion animal bond. . . . Run, Spot, Run offers a welcome counter to the glut of feel-good books on the shelves of my local bookstore extolling the mystical powers of the human-animal bond. Pierce's book is well-written and researched, smart and provocative. And if you are a pet lover, it will spin your head around."

Anthrozoos - Hal Herzog

"A timely critique of America's pet animal industry."

Times Literary Supplement

"Deeply empathetic, yet rigorous and unflinching in her thinking, Pierce has written a book that is sure to help any pet owner, unsettling assumptions but also giving them the knowledge to build deeper, better relationships with the animals with whom they’ve chosen to share their lives."

New Books Network

04/15/2016
A number of books have focused on the ethics of factory farming and zoo animals, but few have looked at the principles of pet keeping, a topic that has significantly increased in popularity in the past few years. While owners indulge their pets with organic food, day spas, and behavioral wellness counselors, they feel guilty about not being able to pay veterinary bills or for leaving their animal alone during the day. Understanding the joy companion pets give us, bioethicist Pierce (The Last Walk) delves into the ambiguous aspects of pet ownership. Using experience with her own pets, along with references to works on animal behavior, the author challenges readers to consider facets that might be uncomfortable. She examines puppy mills, obese pets, overcrowded shelters, neglect and abuse of household pets, and the rise of keeping "exotic" creatures. VERDICT Pierce's singular and thought-provoking work doesn't conclude with a "right" or "wrong" answer but does advocate increased protection for our companion animals. Recommended for both current and potential pet owners.—Eva Lautemann, formerly with Georgia Perimeter Coll. Lib., Clarkston

Library Journal

2016-02-28
Examination of the pros and cons of pet ownership from the standpoint of ethics. Bioethicist Pierce (The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives, 2012, etc.) challenges pet lovers to recognize that animal ownership is definitely a dicey affair; no matter how well loved they are, our pets are essentially being held captives. Arguably, the dogs and cats we consider family may be happy to live with us and would not choose to be free, but for a caged bird or a goldfish in a bowl, the situation is less equivocal. Pierce notes that children are fascinated by animals while still infants, and their relationships with their pets can play an important positive part in their lives, deepening their ability to empathize with and take responsibility for others—with the proviso that they learn to treat them as companions with complex needs rather than merely objects for their entertainment. The author also reminds us that pet ownership is a big business. The pet industry encourages pet ownership, by shaping "a cultural narrative in which pet keeping is part of a normal and happy life," in order to merchandise the sale of the animals as well as "cages, tanks, foods, toys, veterinary products," and more. People are encouraged to bring animals into their homes without considering their responsibility to provide them with food, shelter, exercise, and play. Pierce points to the failure of many owners to provide access to adequate veterinary care and the existence of animal shelters filled to capacity with unwanted, abandoned animals. The author reminds us that the animals we love and treat as companions "are denied nearly all of their natural behaviors, not to mention their freedom." A thoughtful book that should spark debate, with the author stressing that bringing a companion animal into one's life is an ethical commitment that should not to be taken lightly.

Kirkus Reviews