Pope Francis and the Idolatry of Spending on Pets

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Pope Francis’s is absolutely right. The obsession with animals is disturbing to me. The worst part is people value the ‘love’ of pets and give them love more than they do humans. Animals can’t love. Or if you insist that they can hopefully you at least admit they can’t have the higher forms of love which require reason.

I think part of the problem is our low or non existent expectation of right behavior society. People will put up with all sorts of bad behavior from pets. They justify this by saying the pet doesn’t know any better. They are right. But the real reason for the behavior is the pet isn’t properly disciplined by the human. In that way how pets act is a reflection of modern human behavior and standards, or lack thereof.

Said more succinctly, man is not ascending but descending to the level of animal.
 
We have 3 dogs. They cost a lot of money, because we feed them high-quality food, we pay insurance for them and make sure they have all their jabs and every vet treatment they need. When we go on holiday, we pay for home-from-home boarding for them. As a retired person, much of my daily routine revolves around dog-walking and dog care.

However, much as the dogs are our family, we don’t think they’re more important than humans. But they add to our human lives, they’re more than just “dumb animals”. Our two older dogs were rescued, we didn’t go looking for designer puppies.
 
I think most of us who have pets that we’re attached to find that they add to our lives, teach us lessons, help us improve our own habits. Walking a dog is daily exercise; having to feed and care for a pet teaches responsibility and empathy in considering the needs of another living creature. When an animal shows affection for you or even just responds in some way, to me that reflects God’s great love. It’s not like I’m saying the cat wanting to sit on my lap is more awesome than my love relationship with my husband. It’s a different type of love and both are good and reflective of God.
 
Pets are creatures of this world created by the hand of God. I put them above cosmetics. I don’t spend excessively on myself or my pets so I should be sitting pretty with Papa Francis - at least on this one.
 
po18guy said:
Take a gander in your local supermarket. More pet food in a dedicated aisle (often both sides) than there is baby food - wherever that is…
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I would say not if you include those infernal pouches that you feed toddlers. Also, keep in mind baby food is usually spread out through 3-4 aisles. And that many people do not feed babies “baby food” but “real” food.

That, and we tend not to feed infants in 50 pound bags…😆…those take up quite a bit of room.
 
I think the baby aisle competes with the pet aisle if you factor in diapers.

Kind of makes you wonder what people did back in Jesus’ time with all that baby poop. No public trash disposal system. No running water. No disposable diapers. Hovels back to back.
 
TK421 said:
I think the baby aisle competes with the pet aisle if you factor in diapers.

Kind of makes you wonder what people did back in Jesus’ time with all that baby poop. No public trash disposal system. No running water. No disposable diapers. Hovels back to back.
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Still, my point remains is that all the pet food is in one aisle, while babyfood…like teething biscuits, packaged applesauce items are in many others.

They only diapered small babies. Toddlers were not in diapers until preschool. Anthropological studies show diapering probably ended with exclusive breastfeeding–between 6 and 9 months. Anyone who has breastfed knows that “solid” food changes poo quite a bit and is much harder to change. During the 1800’s diapering ended between 12-18 months. By the late 1900’s between 18-24 months. Today diapering lasts 36-48 months. Yeah—that’s 4 years. Some people don’t even try potty training until 3…so its been a huge cultural shift in the last 20 years. Huge.

And we’re talking neuro-typical kids. “Odd” children–which we now classify as ASD or ADHD–were given some leeway…but in general since the time of Christ we’ve moved toilet training down the road realllly far.
 
Taking a sick beloved family pet to the vet is Idolatry?
Horse feathers.
 
Prayer for My Pet

In Your infinite wisdom, Lord God, when You created the Universe You blessed us with all living creatures. We especially thank You for giving us our pets who are our friends and who bring us so much joy in life. Their presence very often helps us get through trying times. Kindly bless my pet. May my pet continue giving me joy and remind me of Your power.

May we realize that as our pets trust us to take care of them, so we should trust You to take care of us, and in taking care of them we share in Your love for all Your creatures. Enlighten our minds to preserve all endangered species so that we may continue to appreciate all Your creatures.

Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
This is getting off-topic, but I don’t fully understand how diapering could end between 6-9 months. Does that just mean they started eating some solid food and the thicker waste was cleaned up some other way?

I guess I’m underestimating how much and how fast a person can mature if you push the matter.
 
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TK421 said:
This is getting off-topic, but I don’t fully understand how diapering could end between 6-9 months. Does that just mean they started eating solid food and the waste was cleaned up some other way? You can actually teach a 1-2 year old where to go to the bathroom?
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It’s still practiced today in Sub-sahara Africa, India and remote places in South America. The mother, or caregiver, teach the child to respond to a cue to urinate or defecate. They watch the child to see if they are ready to do so. From my understanding in cultures where it is normative women (and even men) learn how to do this from an early age with siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews and carry that knowledge into adulthood and their own children.

To be fair here—90% of it is not the maturity of the child. It’s mostly a Pavlovian response coupled with actually watching the child. It’s mostly on the adult. After 18-24 months (with the exception of non-neurotypical children) it’s 99% on the adult. Most parents could potty train a child who’s able to walk and communicate but they don’t because it’s harder. At no previous time in history would a neurotypical child be in diapers until 3…it would be mid 2’s, max. People even 30 years ago would be agast and think that there is something mentally wrong with the child.
 
@Xanthippe_Voorhees
Fascinating. 30 years ago is a single generation. Why such a quick shift?
 
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Is that photoshopped?

Or is that really the Petrine Feline, papal legate to the newly formed city-state of Cat -a- lonia??
 
TK421 said:
@Xanthippe_Voorhees
Fascinating. 30 years ago is a single generation. Why such a quick shift?
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In short–Papers.

Disposable diapers make it VERY easy for parents and caregivers to be lazy and disconnect with the child and their needs. I’m not saying that one is a bad parent for not potty training early–but you now have a generation who grew up without younger siblings being potty trained. You have daycares in which you have a caring staff who learn “early childhood education” but not much on actually reading the bodily language. People just don’t hold a priority to potty training anymore.

Just look at the rise of food pouches in the past 5 years. One used to feed a baby liquidified food only for a very few short months—maybe up to a year–maybe but usually under 9 months. Now, it’s not unheard of for children up to 11 or 12 to slurp down a pouch of food…and there are even applesauce and veggie pouches aimed at adults. Basically baby food!!! 😯 Because it’s “convenient”.

In fact, pediatricians now have to warn parents that children should not consume pouches of food more than a couple times a week because it’s leading to major occupational disorders of being able to eat and speak.
 
Because chewing is also important in the development of muscles related to speaking?

I do love a milkshake 😄 It will be interesting to see how much more soft food becomes popular in the adult population.
 
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So maybe we could do a pet diaper thread.(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
TK421 said:
Because chewing is also important in the development of muscles related to speaking?

I do love a milkshake 😄 It will be interesting to see how much more soft food becomes popular in the adult population.
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Yes, and holding food in one’s mouth. Sucking does not require tongue use and does not teach one to close one’s mouth. In fact, readiness for solids, which occurs between 4 and 6 months is because a baby’s tongue is strong enough to move food from the front of the mouth to the back. So a child who is eating pouches does not strengthen the right muscles.

It’s interesting you mention adults. Actually, we’re learning that soft foods in adults causes many digestive conditions and makes for unhealthy teeth. The mature dietary tract is meant to have the help of the enzymes in saliva. When you chew a really chewy food, your stomach and intestines get a lot of the saliva enzymes. This means the food can be better processed by the body. When you sip and slurp you don’t actually swallow much saliva. When you eat soft foods—like fast foods–you don’t chew many times and thus do not salivate much. Many nutritionalists will now start with encouraging people to chew more to alleviate gut symptoms.
 
What is your profession, if you don’t mind me asking?

Unless you read up on this stuff out of personal interest.
 
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