“Domestication is seen as a process in which humans deliberately and with forethought assume control over the domesticate’s movement, feeding, protection, distribution, and above all, it’s breeding – directed at achieving specific identified goals’’ – Zeder (2012).
The domestication of animals began over 11000 years ago, with different portrayals of the relationship between Homo sapiens and the animal in definitions (Zeder, 2012). The above-quoted definition illustrates the human ruling over the animal in the relationship. Alternatively, it is seen as a symbiotic relationship, where both humans and the domesticated species both mutually benefit (O’connor, 1997).
As I see it, domestication of animals as companion pets is closely associated with “Survival of the cutest” as expressed by my senior Lam Jia Jun in his blog, with a focus on flagship species (Lam, 2019). I feel that his concept could also be extended to domesticated companion animals, where it seems to me that these animals are protected by humans and may not face the threat of extinction. Although a subjective statement, the commonly domesticated companion animals including cats, dogs, rabbits, birds, etc., are mostly aesthetically appealing and adorable, which is one of the reasons why humans are the only species with pets (Hogenboom, 2015).
Image of a cute domestic cat
In contrast, the domestication of animals for agriculture portrays the concept I came up with – ‘’Survival of the tameable’’, meaning the animals do not pose a danger and are not afraid of humans. Unfortunately, being tameable has placed the domesticated animals, including the chicken, pig, cattle, etc., in an unshakeable fate to survive and become food for humans. Animal domestication for agriculture has undeniably become a challenging responsibility for humanity to shoulder, where the welfare of animals for agriculture feels like a heavy weight on me.
Given my attempts in becoming vegetarian, I understand the difficulty in assuaging the demand by humans for farm animals as food. The least I hope for is an improvement in the welfare of farmed animals, such as in free-ranging farms where the animals have the freedom to access fields and sources for their own food. But what does free-ranging actually mean in the farm industries?
Video retrieved from PETA’s Youtube channel
This video highlights how I should not take “labels” as it is and the stark differences in standards of free-ranging in various farm industries (Riveria, 2017)
The dawn of the human-livestock relationship has consequently led to increasing land-use for agriculture purposes to meet the demand for meat consumption. It was reported by Bruinsma & Alexandratos (2011) that 1.2million km2 of land is required for agricultural purposes till 2030. Unfortunately, agricultural land-use would threaten the environment including its biodiversity and the climate (Zabel, Putzenlechner & Mauser 2014). In my view, the domestication of animals for agriculture feels wrong to the farm animals and the environment. It feels wrong to mankind as well, where I resonate with Jared Diamond’s article on agriculture being ‘’The worst mistake in the history of human race’’ (Diamond, 1999).
What about my opinions on the domestication of animals as companions? – Till my next post!
Paws out!
<<Additional inputs as of 24/9/2020>>
Hi everyone. I would like to point out how some of the information above are my opinions that are admittedly inaccurate. With the help and the knowledge from Dr Coleman, I can now better explain them.
For instance, I would like to highlight how “cuteness” is not considered a factor to which how the dog species were domesticated. They were domesticated for herding, guarding and and even hunting – you can find out more here.
- Also, I left out a pretty important information – birds are wild animalswild animals, only some species are considered pets.
References:
Alexandratos, N., & Bruinsma, J. (2012). World agriculture towards 2030/2050: the 2012 revision. ESA Working Paper No 12-03. Rome: FAO.
Diamond, J. (1999, May 1). The worst mistake in the history of the human race. Discover Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race
Hogenboom, M. (2015) Why do we love our pets so much? Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150530-why-do-we-love-our-pets-so-much
Lam, J. (2019, September 13). Survival of the cutest [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://blog.nus.edu.sg/unnaturalselection/2019/09/13/survival-of-the-cutest/
O’Connor, T. (1997). Working at relationships: Another look at animal domestication. Antiquity, 71(271), 149-156. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00084635
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. (2018, February 27). Chickens Crammed Inside Shed on ‘Free-Range’ Farm. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/HXlfn4uIDm8
Riveria, L. (2016, June 4). Unmasking the truth behind food labelling in the chicken industry. Independent [United Kingdom]. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/supermarket-chicken-labels-truth-free-range-battery-treatment-organic-a7751536.html
Zabel, F., Putzenlechner, B., & Mauser, W. (2014). Global agricultural land resources–a high resolution suitability evaluation and its perspectives until 2100 under climate change conditions. PloS one, 9(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107522
Zeder, A. (2012). Domestication of animals. Journal of Anthropological Research, 68(2), 161-190. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.com/stable/23264664
Hi Rachel!
Insightful post with regards to the domestication of animals. I’ve always been quite skeptical about the quality of life that farm animals have and personally, I feel the label “free-ranging” sounded a little too good to be true.
Looking forward to your next post regarding companion animals because I’ve heard of the growing popularity of exotic pets such as fennec foxes in the US and it always bewildered me how they came about being pets in the first place because they’re definitely not as tame/domesticated like your usual companion animals.
Hi Tricia!
Thank you for reading my blog 🙂 Indeed domestication of animals with regards to owning them as exotic pets seems questionable. I really love that you mentioned the Fennec Fox as an example, I was really amazed that this wild creature I saw on National geographic documentaries ended up in human homes as pets! They are really adorable and looking at how they could play around in human homes and socialise with humans and even other domesticated pets like the cat in trending Instagram videos, it seems that they could potentially become a commonly domesticated pet. However I have reservations on the domestication of Fennec foxes especially since they are physically adapted to Sahara desert – their big ears provides a large surface area dissipates the heat, enabling them to survive in the Sahara desert. I wondered if that would mean that they are unable to sufficiently adapt to colder countries, like for example, in the United States which have cold seasons and have legalised Fennec foxes to be owned as pets. A point to ponder about – it was reported that Fennec foxes would shiver when temperatures are below 20°C.
Moreover, it worries me that there are situations where these foxes were abandoned, as well as many other exotic pets, with reasons including “hard to take care of” and “foxes are smelly“. The abandoned exotic pets could potentually become free-ranging domestic animals, a good scenario for me to explore in blog, especially if they did actually became domesticated under years of human care. There may be unknown impacts on their well-being and potential impacts on the environment once they become abandoned that I would love to study about. Thank you for your comment!
Cheers,
Rachel
Hi Rachel,
I’m curious, in light of your response to Tricia (and you don’t have to answer) about your perceptions of ppl in warmer regions who keep dog breeds such as samoyeds, Alaskan malamutes and Siberian huskies. Seriously, you don’t have to answer (and it’s not an environmental issue) – it’s just that you argue that the problem of climates being unsuitable for certain species is problematic. And I see Singaporeans walking their huskies in our parks.
Thanks,
jc
Hi Dr Coleman!
Thank you for reading my blog. The owners brining the dog breeds adapted to temperate and tundra climates is a a little worrying to me. My point of view may be biased as I work in an animal clinic and have seen a few cases of Siberian and alaskan huskies suffering heat stroke and coming into the animal clinic as a medical emergency. Owners do try their best to provide cooler environments at home by providing air conditioning, which sadly means contributing to more carbon emissions as compared to a dog who doesn’t need air conditioning. Well, I still love to see these cute fluffy dogs around!
Thank you Dr Coleman!
Cheers
Rachel
Hi Rachel,
I understand that the main way to eliminate animal cruelty in agriculture now is to go vegan. But meat and other animal-derived products have been a huge part of our food culture and I doubt the whole world will go vegan anytime soon. If the marvels of technology can produce commercially affordable meat and animal products without the need for farming that would be great.
To be honest, I’m not surprised that hens that no longer produce as many eggs are killed. Would it be better to have the hen age to a point where it is less suited for consumption? That would mean resources like feed (which do have their own ecological footprint) are wasted.
While free-range farms are better for animal welfare, they do seem to take up a lot more space than current conventional ones. How much more agricultural land would be required to meet the needs of the world population that way?
(Also, I just learnt while writing this comment that “Kampong chicken” is just a breed of chicken and doesn’t mean they are free-ranging kampong style https://mothership.sg/2017/10/this-is-why-the-kampong-chicken-eggs-found-in-spore-are-not-from-chickens-in-a-kampong/)
~Ee Kin
Hi Ee Kin!
Thank you for reading my blog and providing such a great insight to me. Indeed the issue on agriculture of farm animals is such a controversial one between animal welfare, environmentalist and the farmers.
I have seen reports of chickens being killed once they produce lesser eggs as what you’ve mentioned. I agree that if the lives were spared, the chicken would contribute to more carbon footprint for a low output produced, which doesn’t meet the demand of humans. Moreover there’s a push for beef and lamb that incurs higher carbon footprint to be substituted by chicken and pork, which has lesser carbon footprint. https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat#:~:text=The%20world's%20highest%20impact%20chicken,to%20reduce%20your%20carbon%20footprint.
Indeed having free-ranging farms is really hard to achieve especially if the population of human is going to increase continuously. I have this hope that the encouragement of free-ranging farms would allow consumers to see a clearer picture of what is going on and eventually reduce their consumption of meat. It really boils down to individuals and corporations’ motivation to lower both the demand and supply of chickens, which will lower carbon footprint incurred.
The “Kampong” Chicken is not so “Kampong” afterall.
Thank you Ee Kin!
Cheers,
Rachel