Pet history
Tristan Schmid, host, List-en Up!))

Schmid: Have you ever thought about how animals became companions to us humans in the first place? Katherine Grier has. She even wrote a book on the subject, titled Pets in America: a History.

A professor in the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, Grier also curated a traveling exhibition called “Pets in America: The Story of Our Lives with Animals At Home,” which recently toured the United States. Grier says companion animals have been with us for a long, long time.

Katherine Grier: It’s a complicated story because it’s a story about domestication. We know for example that dogs shared living space with people as far back as 12,000 years ago and maybe much further than that. And probably what happened was that people carried infant animals to the fireside and if they survived, and they would feed them, one of the things that they would do was keep the ones that were friendlier and drive away the ones that were less friendly. So what happened was that with dogs, it was almost a form of selective breeding, and you wound up with wolves that began to develop stronger relationships with people and who could live in a cooperative setting with people.

Schmid: Grier says cats were domesticated around 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, though neither cats nor dogs were the most popular animals in colonial America.

Grier: Pet keeping was a practice established in Europe at the time when colonists were coming over here, so they brought it with them. One of the most popular practices they carried with them was keeping cage birds. Pet birds aren’t as common today, and one of the reasons they were so popular in the past was they provided the ambient music for the households until really the 20th century, when people had gramophones and then radios. So if you wanted background music in your house, you had a bird in a cage.

One of the things that colonists did was they found there were a lot of American songbirds that made good cage birds like gold finches, and even birds like mockingbirds and robins. So they captured and kept lots of different kinds of indigenous American birds as cage birds for their songs.

Schmid: Though the popularity of songbirds waned as time went on, pet ownership has become increasingly popular in America.

Grier: One of the changes that happened to the practice of pet keeping in the 19th century was that American society in general began to view pets as an integral pet of family life. They were a way to teach children how to be kind and how to teach them responsibility, and the sort of pleasure and interest that animals brought to households was much more widely accepted in the 19th century than it had been in the 18th century.

The groundwork for our modern experience was in place by the late 1800s: you had pet stores, dog food, all kinds of pet supplies, and even the rise of the small-animal veterinarian by the 1880s. So until the last 20 years, what you saw was sort of a gradual expansion of these practices: more animals receiving commercial pet food, more animals receiving medical care, and so on.

In the last 20 years, it seems like Americans have developed a new level of intensity in their relationships that they have with their pet animals. It’s socially approved, for one thing, and people aren’t embarrassed about expressing those kinds of relationships. It’s also true that the demographics of households have changed: people have more money to spend, they have fewer children, and there are a lot of Americans who live alone. And there are a lot of couples that have decided not to have children. So in these households, pets can play a really large role in everyday life.

Schmid: The growing multi-billion dollar pet industry is evidence enough of pet popularity in the U.S., but Americans are not the only ones with a fascination for animal companions.

Grier: It also shows up among small-scale societies that you really wouldn’t think of as keeping pets. For example, in the Amazon there are indigenous groups that keep pets. So it’s not something that’s just a function of people having a lot of excess wealth and not knowing what else to do with it so they decide to keep animals.

(brief interlude)

Schmid: Whether you’re in the Amazon or in America, if you have internet access, you can check out our website, angieslistpodcasts.com, where you’ll find a link to the “Pets in America” virtual museum exhibit, and much, much more.

Also, if you have an interesting pet story, contact us on our website or send an email to podcast at angieslist.com. And don’t forget to submit your stories and pictures for our upcoming garden and yard episode!

Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to list-en!

PAWS Chicago
Tristan Schmid, host, List-en Up!))

Schmid: You’re probably familiar with traditional animal adoption, and the fact that many shelters and animal control agencies euthanize cats and dogs based on age, health, or space. But some shelters, such as non-profit PAWS Chicago, classify themselves as no-kill shelters because they don’t euthanize adoptable pets as a means of population control. No-kill shelters find homes for all cats and dogs unless they’re vicious or terminally ill. How do they do this? We visited Chicago to find out.

Rochelle Michalek: We approach from two perspectives: 1) low-cost targeted spay neuter, which will reduce intake to Animal Care & Control, and 2) working with ACC and transferring animals into our program, in which we guarantee life, lifetime support, and adopters the resources they need to make sure it’s a great fit into their home.

Schmid: Rochelle Michalek is executive director of PAWS Chicago. Established in 1997, the organization takes cats and dogs at risk of being euthanized from the City of Chicago’s Animal Care & Control division.

Unlike many animal shelters, PAWS Chicago has two distinct locations: the Lurie Family Spay/Neuter Clinic, and the Pippen Fasseas Adoption Center in Lincoln Park. We first visited the Spay/Neuter Clinic in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.

Michalek: Welcome to our spay/neuter clinic. We’re on schedule to do over 15,000 surgeries and provide free spay/neuter for people on public assistance in Chicago, and very low-cost spay/neuter for other people. Since we opened in 2001, we’ve done well over 62,000 surgeries. Spay/neuter is so important in making Chicago no kill. We want to prevent pets from having kittens and puppies, and spay/neuter is definitely the solution. When we opened our doors in 1997, well over 42,000 animals were being euthanized in Chicago every year, and people did not know that. We’ve got the Lurie Family spay/neuter clinic, which is key to keeping those numbers down. As of last year, that number’s well under 19,000. We feel we’re three to five years away from making Chicago no kill. On any given day, we’ll do anywhere from 65-90 surgeries. We also spay/neuter feral cats. Every one checked in is seen by the vet, and at the end of the day, everybody goes home.

Schmid: Cats and dogs from Chicago Animal Care and Control make their first stop at the Spay/Neuter Clinic’s intake center. They’re checked out by a vet, vaccinated, spayed or neutered, microchipped, and if they’re sick, kept in isolation rooms with their own air system in order to prevent the spread of disease.

Michalek: These are the cats that have colds and are on medication. We’ll be nursing them back to health, and as soon as they get the all-clear from doctor, they’ll go to the adoption center. Part of being no kill is that you make an investment in animals’ lives. The only time we euthanize is if the prognosis of treatment is less than grave or poor. You can see this guy has an ulcer in his eye; he’s scheduled to have that ulcer removed.

We really try to make them as comfortable as possible. This is one of the defining factors of no kill. We’ll provide them with any medical attention they need, and we’ll get them ready to find their forever homes.

Schmid: At the Spay/Neuter Clinic, dogs also go through temperament and personality testing. We watched intake & admissions manager Kira Robson take Conor, a yellow lab mix, through the Meet Your Match assessment, developed by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or ASPCA. The test aims to match a dog’s and potential adopter’s personalities by fitting each into a color-coded personality group.

Kira Robson: He’s going to get his Meet Your Match personality assessment. He’s already had his temperament test, gotten all his shots he needs and microchip, and within the next day or so, as long as the vet deems him healthy, he’ll go straight up to our adoption center.

This is where we put them to see how they’ll react to being left alone, a snapshot if you’re going to work to see if they’ll tear your house apart.

We’ll go into the play area, see how interested he is in playing with toys, that sort of thing.

I’m trying to see if this dog needs hours in the park or just a short time. He gets excited, but he’s not exactly Mr. Athletic.

At the end of the evaluation, there’s a manners assessment. He has a little bit of bad manners, and gets extra points for energy.

We have all this info from a short personality assessment. The whole concept is if you come into the shelter, work 60 hours a week and love the way he looks, and then you get him home and he’s tearing the house apart, it’s a wrong match. We give you a bunch of info to adopt a dog versus adopting based on “he’s so cute.”

Conor’s a goofball, because he’s kind of fun and likes to play, but not overactive. We’ll mark him in the computer as an orange goofball, and his kennel card will say “I’m an orange goofball, this is what that means” and you’ll hopefully have an orange ticket in your hand.

Schmid: After an animal goes through the intake process at the spay/neuter clinic, it doesn’t take long for them to be available for adoption.

Robson: It takes three days maximum. The only thing that holds them up is if they get sick, catch a cold. Adults are in and out in 3 days, puppies and kittens in 10 days.

Theoretically we should be able to match instantaneously. It could be a different ballgame when you get home. We do a two-week foster-to-adopt period. You have two weeks to really see if it’s the right fit, and you can call us at the end of 2 weeks and say  “this has way more energy than I was thinking…”

Schmid: After touring the Spay/Neuter Clinic, we headed over to the Adoption & Humane Center, which opened last September. Located in Lincoln Park, the state-of-the-art facility attracts visitors with its large, inviting windows and a welcoming, pleasant design.

Michalek: Once they’re cleared for adoption, then they come up here.

One of the things we wanted to do with the concept of the Adoption Center was take that 75% of people that would normally buy a pet at a store and get them to come in and adopt from us or rescue a shelter animal. A lot of the reason people don’t like to go to animal welfare organizations is the noise, the smell, it’s depressing, there’s euthanasia, the adoption process can be somewhat of an interrogation and a long process. So when we opened the center we wanted to make it very warm, welcoming, stress-free for the animals. Our adoption program is very much of an educational process versus one of ‘why should I adopt this pet to you?’ As you can see, we went for an urban farm oasis in the heart of Lincoln Park.

Schmid: The Adoption & Humane Center showcases PAWS Chicago’s adoptable pets in Kitty City and Dog Town.

Michalek: Senior cats are the first cats in a traditional shelter that will be euthanized. We opted to showcase them. As you can see, they have the first beautiful suite, right in the lobby. The room’s designed for seniors: a lot of small steps, everything is easy to get to.

Schmid: After visiting the kitties, we headed over to the Dog Town suites and saw Sophie’s Room, which Oprah Winfrey donated in her dog’s name. We also checked out the Dog Play Space, where prospective owners can take pups out to play. However, the suites are so nice that some dogs would rather hang out in their rooms than in the play space.

Michalek says PAWS Chicago plans to find homes for more than 3,000 animals that were  transferred from Animal Control this year.

Michalek: One of the things that’s really amazing is that ASPCA stats say less than 25% of animals are adopted from animal welfare organizations. 75% are bought from pet stores, and as we all know they’re what’s supporting the puppy mill situation in the US. So if we can get 5% more of the population to adopt from a welfare organization, we could really end euthanasia of adoptable pets here and across the country.

Schmid: For more about PAWS Chicago and other pet resources, and to let us know what you thought about this episode, go to angieslistpodcasts.com.

(brief interlude)

On a different note, we’d like to know: how does your garden grow? We’re showcasing beautiful gardens from Angie’s List members in an upcoming episode, so if you’re proud of your lush landscaping, snap a picture of your yard or garden and email it to us along with a brief description to podcast at angieslist.com.

Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to list-en!