🤔 Are pets good or bad?

Hello 👋 We're back with another edition of Weekend Rounds. Yes, we took a week off last Sunday, but we're only human. Sometimes we need a moment to recharge our batteries, and so do you. Don't forget to take care of yourself this week 😊On the plus side, we have two weeks of news to cover:🐈 Are pets good or bad?🧑 What's going on with Gen Z?🐻 Why don't bears get blood clots?🚀 Quick hits

The Ying and Yang of Pets

To celebrate National Pet Day earlier this month, the internet was abuzz with all kinds of pet-related content. Of course there were plenty of listicles with ideas to celebrate with your pets, photos of the cutest pets, and discounts from your favourite pet brands. But one conversation that seemed to bubble close to the surface was a simple question of whether or not pets are good or bad for owners and for society at large. The more obvious answer, and the one that most of us probably agree wth, is that yes, pets are a good and additive part of our culture. To get the arguments started, The T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard hosted a live stream conversation on the the science of the human-animal connection and the unexpected ways pets can make a difference to our physical and mental well-being. It was an interesting conversation between Dr. Beth Frates of Harvard Medical School and Dr. Megan Mueller of Tufts University, which we recommend watching below if you're interested.

So what could possibly be bad about owning a pet, right? Enter Kenny Torrella from Vox who wrote last week on the case against pet ownership. To Kenny, who was inspired by the book Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets by author and bioethicist Jessica Pierce, our obsession with pets may not be as symbiotic a relationship as we'd expect.

It's clear that humans often get a lot out of the relationship but often times this is at the expense of the pet's well-being. And it's not just talking about the extreme examples of abuse. To quote from the article:

"even well-meaning pet owners may have a lot to answer for: punitive training, prolonged captivity and extreme confinement, mutilations (declawing, ear and tail docking), outdoor tethering, lack of autonomy, verbal abuse, monotonous and unhealthy diets, lack of grooming, and inadequate veterinary care."

Tens of thousands of years of domestication has led our most popular companion pets - dogs and cats - to turn from guards to companions. This is where the ethics arguments really take flight. Not only have the methods by which we evolved our dogs led to complicated health problems, pets then need to be trained and often by dominance and control tactics that can increase increase fear, anxiety, and stress.

Plus, scientists who have set up cameras to see what dogs do when home alone all day have seen a lot of yawning, barking, howling, whining, and sleeping — further signs of anxiety and frustration [source: Science Direct] So the question remains: are pets good?

On the one hand, pets provide immense health benefits for humans. But from an animal-centric point of view, it's possible that our pet-obsession has created an industry that has lowered the quality of life for some animals and created hardship for them.

Gen Z, you good fam? 

Generation Z, most known for being the first digital-native generation and saying things like 'no cap', 'slay', and 'I can't even', are making headlines for another reason this week. A new survey from Zillow and The Harris Poll shows that Gen Z would prioritize pets over partners and kids. As you may have gathered from our main story (and the fact that we run a veterinary education business), we're very pro-pet. But some of the data points are a bit concerning:

  • 22% of Gen Z pet owners would want to move if their home was no longer working for their pet, but only 12% would want to move if their home was no longer working for their partner.

  • If they were buying a home and had to choose, a majority of Gen Z pet owners say it's more important to have a pet-friendly home (55%) than a kid-friendly home (45%)

  • Amongst all age ranges, more than 1 in 8 pet owners living with a spouse or significant other would rather share their primary bedroom with their pet than their partner.

Now this could be because the age range of Gen Z adults currently sits between 18–26. And when you're between 18-26 you're probably not thinking too much about buying a home with a double sink so you can your partner can have kids and grow old together.But if we zoom out and think about what this means for society... are younger generations more detached from their human counterparts and prefer animal companions? As they enter the workforce, how will this influence their purchasing behavior? As veterinarians, I guess it's good. But as participants in society it's a bit worrying.

Bears vs. thrombosis

I personally have never wondered why bears don't get blood clots while hibernating, but thankfully people much smarter than me are asking those questions and getting answers. New research has shown that bears settling in for hibernation have low levels of a key protein that helps blood clots form.The study compared platelets from blood samples taken during hibernation against samples taken during summer and found that the winter samples were less likely to clump together than summer samples.That seasonal difference was pinned to a protein called Heat Shock Protein 47 (HSP47) that was about 50-times less in hibernating animals than active ones. What's more, this thromboprotection extends to other mammals such as mice, pigs and even humans with a largely sedentary lifestyle because of long-term mobility problems.

Quick Hits

Here are some stories we're following this week from around the veterinary world and animal kingdom:A follow up to saving the soul of veterinary medicine [VIN]FDA approves first generic maropitant [FDA]Addressing global inequities in access to essential medicines [AVMA]

AVMA, Mars and Industry leaders unveil Positive Pet Care Guide [AVMA]Zoonoses of superbugs [Daily Mail]Tax season tips for vets [DVM 360]Telus launches virtual care services [Telus]Make a wish sends 13 year old to vet school [KAGS]Protestors at Liverpool horse race track arrested [The Guardian]