The main character in the new film The Secret Life of Pets is a white and tan terrier named Max. As the movie opens, Max gushes about how wonderful his life is with his beloved owner, Katie, in their Manhattan apartment. There is only one problem, he tells the audience: “She leaves!” Indeed, the opening scene is a series of doors slamming in pets’ faces.
For a split second, the pets appear bereft and lonely, but they quickly shake it off and the fun begins. They open cage doors, climb through windows and gather in apartments and on sidewalks. They have parties, with butt-sniffing and bowls of biscuits; they rock out to heavy metal music and, on the day in question, have wild and unexpected adventures involving deranged alley cats, dog catchers, and the Revolutionary Army of Flushed Pets who are plotting revenge against the humans who abandoned them.
It is a story repeated from home to home across the country: the door slams and the pet is left alone. But what really happens when owners leave for the day? I happen to know quite well what my two dogs do for the first 15 minutes. The evidence of their “work” is usually all over the kitchen floor, and when I forget something and have to run back in after leaving I often catch them in flagrante delicto. First they counter surf, to see if we’ve been neglectful enough to leave anything within reach. Loaves of bread, bags of cookies, pretzels – all are fair game. Next, they check whether there is any cat food to be stolen. After this, I’m not sure.
The Secret Life of Pets was written to entertain, not to provide social commentary on the state of pet-keeping in America. But in addition to providing some clean summer fun, the movie offers an opportunity for serious reflection upon this most bizarre human cultural ritual. And some reflection is in order, since the wellbeing of millions of animals is at stake.
The popularity of keeping pets is at an all-time high, and the number of pet animals living in our homes has mushroomed over the past four decades such that pets now outnumber people. The pet industry eagerly fuels this hobby and rakes in billions of dollars each year on the sale of pet animals and their paraphernalia. What does the secret life of pets look like from the animals’ point of view?
A YouTube video called “What my dog does when I leave” has several million views, probably because it taps into a curiosity and concern many of us share. A man straps a GoPro to his dog to capture what a day for him is like on his own. You can almost feel the dog’s desperation as his owner shuts the door. The dog howls, he runs around the house, looking into every crevice to see if his human might be there. He sniffs the man’s clothes. He whines. And he waits. What I find most striking about the video is that the dog doesn’t sleep. He is anxiously alert all day, ears pricked for the slightest sound.
GoPro videos notwithstanding, our animals’ lives when we leave them home are mostly invisible to us. Looking at several objective measures, however, we can surmise that the secret lives of our pets are often boring, frustrating and lonely. At least 40% of dogs in US homes are thought to suffer from anxiety, and these are just the cases that have been identified by veterinarians. Since at least a quarter of all dogs and a third of all cats never see a veterinarian during their lifetime, pathological levels of anxiety are probably much higher than reported.
Emotional suffering often manifests in “behavioral problems” which are promptly blamed on the pets themselves. But the roots of these problems are almost certainly to be found in the living conditions of our pets. Many are housebound, and spend much of each day alone with nothing to do. By one accounting, the average pet owner spends only 40 minutes a day really interacting with his or her animal. Pets have few opportunities to interact with others of their own kind, leaving them in a state of constant social starvation. Rates of morbid obesity are even higher in dogs and cats than they are in humans – unmistakable evidence that our animals are not getting the physical exercise they desperately need.
We can understand what pet animals need by looking, for a moment, at animals in zoos. Welfare researchers agree that the welfare of zoo animals can be profoundly compromised when they don’t have opportunities to procure their own food, solve problems in their environment, or engage with others of their kind. When animals lack appropriate physical, mental and social stimulation, they can develop what are called “stereotypies”, repetitive behavior patterns such as pacing or weaving which are indicative of severe psychological suffering. Just as animals in zoos can suffer from having nothing to do, so can our pets.
For all our rhapsodizing about the human-animal bond, the relationship remains tenuous for many pets. Often the “bond” becomes strained when owners fail to provide what animals really need. In a sad twist, behaviors such as destroying furniture, compulsive barking, and soiling in the house are often a manifestation of the frustration and boredom of being left alone too much, with not enough to do. Yet rather than see our own role in driving our animals crazy, we blame it on them – on bad wiring or bad attitude – and off they go to join the Army of Flushed Pets.
Secret Life reminds us that animals do have complex worlds of their own – worlds which interlock with ours. We can do our best to help them have interesting lives, have some independence from us, and have opportunities to engage in the behaviors for which they have evolved and which they still “need” to perform. This is especially important in places like New York City which, however exciting and vibrant for humans, is not really designed for animals. It is incumbent upon us as responsible guardians to make sure the secret lives of our pets are fulfilling and happy.
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