Agreed, anything helpful or substantive was limited in scope to dogs. It was also riddled with a lot of “You know, I think…” but did cite one large scale study of anxiety in dogs, which fits with my anecdotal experience. We “rescued” a 50 lb hound dog and had him living in our little Brooklyn apartment for 2 years. We’re right next to a huge park with big fields and lots of open off-leash time, which he loved, but in our apartment or on the sidewalk, he was constantly, visibly stressed out. We ended up putting him on Prozac, and the vet told us half the dogs in Brooklyn were on anti-anxiety meds.
He lives in Maine now with my semi-retired dad and is fat, happy and drug-free. It definitely takes some thoughtfulness about what you can actually offer a pet, which is the thing the article considered in the opening (“fewer, happier pets”). After our experience, I do marvel at how many people in Brooklyn choose to own huge, energetic dogs. The happiest ones I see are in big packs with the professional dogwalkers wandering around in the park for hours, but even then, that’s a fraction of the day.
If you think beating your kid is the same as offering guidance and discpiline, then you’re wrong and I hope you don’t have kids. Because that’s the only thing that “the gubmint” says you can’t do to your kid - with GOOD reason. It does fuck-all to help kids grow up into healthy, happy adults who aren’t damaged.
