Have you ever wondered what gives us the right as human beings to own a domestic animal and be in charge of it? Well there are a number of possible answers. The radical animal liberation people might say that we have no such right. My problem with that response is that it seems to ignore the reality that domestic animals are quite literally made to live with people. I have been in third world countries where the people are too busy trying to survive themselves to do a very good job looking after dogs, and the result is hard to look at. On a recent trip to South Sudan, the first dog I saw was dead and the second one was headed in that direction. When domestic dogs don’t have a person to look out for them, they suffer terribly.
Another answer might be that because we have, by an act of our will, made the decision to have dogs in our lives (and homes), we are responsible for their well-being. Our far greater understanding of the dangers of the world in which we live dictates that we have a moral responsibility to look out for their well-being. A dog doesn’t know and cannot have it explained to him what happens when a car traveling at 40 mph encounters soft tissue, but we know, therefore it is incumbent upon us to keep them out of that situation (and many others) either by means of training or at least restraint.
I first became seriously interested in dog training when I read Vicki Hearne’s book entitled Adam’s Task: Calling Animals by Name. The title is a reference to the account in the book of Genesis (2:19-20) in the Bible where God brings each animal to Adam to see what name he will call it. According to the story, this is how God gave dominion over the animals to man. Subsequent to The Fall, when Adam and Eve doubted God’s goodness and consequently disobeyed Him, that dominion was severely diminished, but I believe we still enjoy the remnant of it in our relationships with domestic animals. Although I wasn’t a Christian at the time and was only vaguely aware of the biblical reference, even then, it did seem to be an explanation of the reality that I had experienced.
