The trend of pets has been a matter of the past 150 years. But what will the next 150 years look like? With the evolution of our society and its values, circuses and zoos are on the radar, and the number of people who do not eat meat, and even vegans, are increasing. These tendencies go against the ownership of any kind of animal. So what will the future hold for our pets?
Nearly 4.5 million cats and dogs are registered in the Czech Republic, and every other household has some kind of pet at home. In Europe there are 70 million households with some kind of pet. In the US many people earn money by watching and walking dogs, and their owners spend over 5 billion dollars on services for their pets. If we look at Asia, for example, in Japan there are more pets than children. The world simply loves pets.
In recent years, even though our pets are rightful members of our family and we do everything we can for them, there are questions as to whether we are actually doing the right thing. Is it right to have a pet animal? Is it right to be its owner? This is happening in regard to recent trends in our society, which has become interested in the rights of animals in zoos, many people don't eat meat, etc. On the other hand, we have to realize that the position of pets has shifted a lot in the last hundred years. They used to be work animals without any rights. What's the situation today? We give our pets the best possible care. How will pet care evolve?
In the future, we may prefer a robotic pet with artificial intelligence that is able to learn much more than our real dog, while not requiring much of our care and time. Where does the boundary of our human imagination and needs end? We can now choose between a live dog, stuffed toy or robopet.
Perhaps we will also live to see scientists mass producing pets in their laboratories in relation to the progress that society is making today.
What do you think about robopets? And do you think having pets is something that will come to an end? What should the position of animals be? I personally hope that the law and position of animals will continue to change in their favor, but that they will remain in our homes.
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