TFH for Our Quadrupedal Friends

JAMES NEAL

1984 CONFERENCE PAPER

The Pet Food Institute estimates in 1982 there were 41.3 to 48.8 million owned dogs, 21.1 to 25.6 million owned cats, and 23 million owned birds in the United States. That is approximately 2.8 owned pets for each person in the United States. The pet food and accessory industry sold over $1.1 billion worth of pet food and supplies in 1982. Although the defense budget dwarfs that figure, it does represent a respectable expenditure of money. A survey conducted by the Institute for the Study of Animal Problems in 1981 indicated that 87 percent of the pets are considered to be members of the family by their owner. I hope that this article will provoke the same level and quality of concern about the well being of our quadrupedal “relatives” as you do for your bipedal relatives. We are indeed, commonly, animals. We share physical and non-physical environments, motion, and many bodily processes and are determined by them.