Unnatural Companions: Rethinking Our Love of Pets in an Age of Wildlife Extinction

In Unnatural Companions: Rethinking Our Love of Pets in an Age of Wildlife Extinction, Peter Christie, an award-winning science journalist, blames “pets” and the “pet industry” for replacing the role of nature in human experience and devastating free-living animal populations and attributes this to our misplaced biophilia. Christie explains that “biophilia,” popularized by Edward O. Wilson, “is the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms” (p. 16). Wilson believed that biophilia would be the foundation for our interest in and desire to protect nature. However, instead of protecting nature, humans found another outlet for our biophilia—companion animals. Noting that the number of dogs and cats in the United States has doubled in the past 50 years while the number of free-ranging backboned creatures has halved, Christie details how our love of companion animals is contributing to the greatest environmental crisis faced by the global ecosystem. For Christie, the irony is that “pet owners”—the very folks destroying the planet—are the same folks who tend to care about animals and thus are the people the planet needs to save it. Thus, the need for Unnatural Companions—to create awareness about how companion animal keeping is threatening free-living animals vital to our planet and place a call to action for companion keepers to step up for nature.Christie's background as a conservationist is evident throughout as he makes clear that what is truly valuable is nature—viewed at the species level, not at an individual animal—and that we must end our fascination with “pets” who are destroying it. Each chapter details the destruction companion animals have on nature through interviews with a variety of individuals, from Peter Marra, a conservation scientist described as an animal lover while arguing for the eradication of all free-roaming cats in his book Cat Wars, to Tom Rahill, a contractor hired to kill Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades.Chapter 3, “Cat War Battles,” begins with the familiar conservationist story that pits cats against birds. Christie recounts as “science” Marra's oft-cited estimates of the billions of birds and small mammals allegedly killed by cats annually in the United States to support the eradication of all free-roaming cats while characterizing those who challenge these estimates and seek humane, nonlethal methods for managing the free-roaming cat population as an “organized misinformation campaign that's influencing conservation policy . . . [and] undermining efforts to stop the devastation. . . . [P]ro-cat people have discovered an endless well of faith in their cause . . . as a tool they pit against science” (p. 63). Further, Christie notes that even “man's best friend” holds “the number three spot after cats and rodents as the world's most damaging invasive mammalian predators” (p. 58). It is disappointing that Christie opens, uncritically, with the age-old cat versus bird battle and demonizes domestic cats and dogs as invasive predators. Moreover, Christie fails to distinguish between “pet owners” who “purchase” their dog or cat from a “pet store” (likely sourced by a “pet mill”) or breeder, contributing to both the increasing population and often abusive breeding conditions, and those who adopt homeless animals from a shelter or rescue.Next, Christie targets the exotic animal trade that incentivizes the trapping, transport, and sale of free-range animals to serve the “pet market” and introduces nonnative species into the environment when the animals escape or are released by “owners.” Christie notes that one third of all free-ranging bird species are impacted by the animal trade with the trapping of these and other exotic animals causing extinctions in their natural habitats. Moreover, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora—the international treaty that governs the trade in “wildlife”—has failed to adequately protect endangered species, while the illegal trade in animals is at least a third as large as its lawful counterpart. And, once purchased, the invasion of these exotic species devastates native animals, both by directly killing them and by introducing diseases that the native species are unable to ward off. The story Christie tells of the harms of the exotic animal trade are compelling; however, Christie's failures to distinguish the keeping of domestic dogs and cats from that of exotic animals and to acknowledge the severe harm done to the individual exotic animal whose home should be in their natural habitat and not in a cage, aquarium, or apartment, is discouraging. Moreover, the proposed solution to these “invasive predators” is to kill them, with the killing arguably glorified by Rahill, who explains that his team of US veterans, after losing the sense of camaraderie and purpose found in the military, find relief, a sense of aim, and adventure in killing the Everglades pythons. Finally, rather than proposing a ban on the exotic animal trade, Christie suggests only that we better regulate the trade and close the gap for animals illegally transported.In Chapter 7, Christie details how the “pet food industry,” specifically high-end food manufacturers using larger quantities of fresh and raw meat and fish, is creating a disaster for nature. Christie recounts that the agricultural industry is harming free-living animals in innumerable ways, including converting natural habitat to farmland, killing those who prey on farmed animals, and consuming more water than any other human use, while polluting the same. Furthermore, the overfishing of forage fish populations needed to feed free-living animals can be traced to companion animal food as one in every seven boatloads of fish taken from our oceans is used to feed our companion animals. This chapter is quite powerful and targets arguably one of the single greatest threats to human, animal, and environmental health, the industrial agricultural complex. Notably missing, however, is the harm caused to the farmed animals raised and slaughtered for food and an acknowledgement that while premium companion animal food may contribute to the abuse and devastation caused by agriculture, until humans shift to a more plant-based diet, the devastation will continue, with or without our companions.Next, Christie compares the vast resources companion animal carers spend on their animals in contrast to the small amounts spent by governments to conserve nature, noting that worldwide companion keepers spend more than four times on their animals than the combined amount paid by nations to save biodiversity. However, it is unclear how this disparity in spending supports Christie's hypothesis that our companions are destroying our planet as he admits that “[n]othing suggests that the money spent on pets comes at the expense of dollars for wildlife” (p. 162). Although Christie suggests that if companion carers understood that “money can't buy love, but it can help keep the loneliness of a world without biodiversity at bay” (p. 173) they may be more likely to urge greater government spending on conservation or perhaps donate to conservation efforts rather than spend on their companion animals.In the penultimate chapter, Christie explores the unexpected benefits of our misplaced biophilia. Domestic dogs, previously characterized as a nightmare for nature, can be of great help to conservation efforts with their keen sense of smell that, for example, can sniff out zebra mussels, nonnative mollusks that are destroying lakes in Montana, while guardian dogs can be used to protect prey from predators rather than using guns, snares, or poison to kill them. Christie even identifies a silver lining in the exotic animal trade, noting that free-ranging animals almost extinct in their native habitat are thriving in their nonnative location while exotic animals are helping to preserve species that are no longer living in nature by inspiring an interest in animals among people who interact with them and providing a source of animals for research. While it is refreshing to hear of the positive attributes of our canine companions and the recognition of nonlethal management methods, Christie disappoints again with his anthropocentric focus on the benefits of the exotic animal trade that serve human uses, including promoting research and preserving species, even when the individual animal is living in captivity rather than in their natural home.In closing, Christie returns to our biophilia and how we might transform our misplaced biophilia to help free-living animals. He posits that instead of focusing on the disagreements between companion animal keepers and conservationists, we need to focus on our mutual goals and have a greater awareness of nature's plight and the remedial transformation of the marketplace. With knowledge of the harms caused by our companions and the accompanying food industry, we can alter our behavior to limit the negative effects our companions have on free-living animals and vote with our wallets to get the attention of the “pet industry.” This final call to action was a pleasant surprise focusing on bridging the gap between animal advocates and conservationists. Ultimately, appreciating the consequences of our actions as companion animal carers and conservationists and following an ethic to protect the lives of all animals will lead to a better future for all.