The New York Times recently highlighted Korea's companion dog culture under the title: 'The lonely country of Korea adopts dogs as life companions'. Korea has a declining birth rate, an increasing number of singles and childless people, and a country that used to eat dogs but now accepts dogs as children or grandchildren and treats them as family members who cherish them as life partners.
The New York Times uploaded a video of a funeral for a companion dog, similar to a human funeral, and even mentioned other specific cases in detail. The owner wears an old $38 padded jacket while putting his dog in a new $150 jacket, and while he eats old food from the refrigerator, he feeds his dog fresh chicken breast. It is reported that the pet economy is growing as dog strollers sell better than baby strollers in Korea, and the number of dog daycares, trainers, clothing, funeral homes, and groomers is increasing. The newspaper reports that dogs in Korea today are family members needing care.
The word 'responsible' is related to self-identity. People feel psychologically stable when their inner self and external behavior are consistent when they acknowledge their true nature and desires as they are, and when they pursue authenticity. However, when they act 'inappropriately,' they feel psychological discomfort in a state of cognitive dissonance. Therefore, they think the greatest happiness is when their 'self' is acknowledged, when they build relationships based on their own self, and when they love and are loved.
Dogs also feel secure when they love and are loved like dogs. There is a tendency to treat dogs excessively like humans by giving them human characteristics or anthropomorphizing them. Animals live and exist in their own way. However, there are cases where dogs are dressed in clothes that can be uncomfortable and painful or used excessively with cosmetics or accessories. She wonders if they are using their companion dogs as tools to show off their image to others while ignoring the physical discomfort of dogs.
Humans should be loved while loving like humans, and dogs should be loved and loved like dogs. Humans and dogs are clearly different. Kant defines humans as rational beings. They can set their own goals and make moral decisions and judgments. Therefore, loving humans like humans means respecting the other person's freedom and choices while relating to them based on mutual respect and consideration.
However, dogs are sensitive and faithful to their instincts. Loving dogs like dogs means respecting their instinctive needs and nature. Humans are born as immature babies and grow into independent adults who can take care of others. In the process, they share emotional bonds and become interdependent, growing and maturing. However, dogs are like children who need care from the beginning until death.
However, humans expect dogs to act as emotional partners for humans and try to gain psychological satisfaction by treating them like mature people. It would not be a proper way to care for dogs if we project our complex emotional needs onto dogs to get emotional rewards, make dogs behave the way humans want them to, or have excessive expectations that dogs love and understand us.
Dogs cannot become people, so why do we try to 'anthropomorphize' them? We should consider whether we are overly relying on companion dogs to relieve the fatigue, emotional deprivation, and loneliness from human relationships and trying to get emotional compensation.
<Spiritual Questions>
Wives and husbands are called 'companions.' Dogs have also become relatively high in status as they are called 'companion dogs'. Companion dogs have become part of the human family. Sometimes, the degree of obsession is greater than that of family. Questions such as "Please baptize my companion dog," "Please pray for my companion dog's healing," "Please hold a funeral for my companion dog at church," and "Will I be able to meet my dog again in heaven?" are now a reality that we can no longer ignore. Just like people, we hold funerals and keep the remains of our companion dogs at home, remembering and praying for them.
However, excessive obsession with companion dogs can quickly become a substitute for religious and emotional salvation. Do you feel like the time you spend walking your dog at a particular time every day is a sacred act? Do you find emotional stability in the daily ritual of uploading pictures of your dog to SNS and writing a walking journal? Does the anthropomorphization of dogs, treating them like people, make you love them more?