PROSPECT AND PROBLEMS OF RAISING COMPANION ANIMALS

1. PROSPECT AND PROBLEMS OF RAISING COMPANION ANIMALS

2. What is a Companion Animal: A companion animal is defined as a friend and member of a family. In this social position they are given series of names that give joy to the owners, they are confidants on which love and affection are lavished and incorporated into the family setting. They enhance the social status of the owner. Companion animals are reared for a number of utilities, such as, guard, hunting, retrieving, sporting, pets, guide, herding. Other animals are also trained to be companion animals, such as; horse, ruminant, reptiles, birds etc Man domesticated wild animals for various uses, herding, gun/sporting, working.

3. Herding dogs - these are used by shepherds to provide protection from wildlife and also to keep the animals together e.g. cattle dogs, sheepdogs etc Welsh crogi, German shepherd dogs, Shetland sheepdog, Border collie etc Working dogs: are used for guards and retrieving e.g. by police and other security agents NDLEA e.g. Mastiff, Great Dane, Rottweiler, Boxers. Sporting/Gun: Dogs are used to stall animals and when they are finally killed to retrieve the dead animals e.g. English setter, spaniel, retrievers, pointers. Grey hand. Pets: These are strictly companions animals, they are in very close association with the family members and considered as a member of the house hold. Usually the toy breeds e.g. Maltese, poodles, Lhasa apso etc cats are also bred as pets Guide for the blind and old people e.g. Dalmatian, Terriers

4. Equidae: Horse are bred as working and companion animals and sporting animals. They are a great money spinners for their owners e.g. Polo and racing. They are also used as beast of burden and for transportation from place to place. Horses are given very sweet names by their owners. The owners also take good care in terms of housing, feeding, veterinary care and other management. Ruminants – sheep and goats: are used as companion animals and for commercial purposes. In the villages they serve as companion of old people. They respond to their names and give joy to these old people that are left behind when the children and adults are gone to their various places of work and schools.

5. Wildlife: Such as birds, reptiles, small and large mammals etc. These animals are caged, hand fed, talked to, teased to the joy and administration of their owners and others e.g. squirrels, parrot, snakes etc Cocks: are used for sporting - cockfighting which has been outlawed in most communities. In this case the owner must acquire necessary materials, raise and train birds, pass along subcultural knowledge, and engage in local activity while attempting to avoid social and legal sanction. While the deviant nature of cockfighting generates problems for participants, it also offers the essential rewards derived from involvement in a socially disvalued activity.

6. Sports: Dogs, horses and some other sporting animals are “hobby objects” and they play a key role in the world of leisure, separated from the everyday, necessary, pecuniary world of work. The owners are committed and involved in the passionate avocation of dog sports, shapes the time commitments, social identities, self definitions, evaluation of physical settings and social interactions of the devotees. Being in the company of dogs, horses etc transforms their evaluation of safety and danger inherent in physical settings and social encounters. Sometimes normally safe situation are problematized by the presence of their dogs. Alternatively, their canine travelling companions enhance feelings of power and control in situation, where as, women in public would typically feel threatened. Dogs act to both facilitate desired forms of social exchange and deflect unwanted public encounters. Owners of companion animals share love and friendship, joy in life versus sorrow in death and pets as family members. Companion animals act as extensions to their caretakers’ social selves and consequently, their demise is expressed as painful loss of self

7. 1) Problems • Many owners do lack the will to spend so much on animals • Purchase of medication: • Toys for pets • Instruction books • Seeking veterinary services • Possessiveness • General management - (Special housing, medication, vaccination)

8. 2) Disease Zoonotic: Tuberculosis, Rabies, Brucellosis, Tapeworm, Anthrax, Avian influenza, Botulusm, Dermatomycosis, E-coli etc Viral disease : Avian influenza, rabies Bacterial diseases: Botulism, Brucellosis, Anthrax, Salmononellosis Parasitic: Ascariosis, Echinococcosis, Hookwarm, ringworm, Trypanomosis, Lymee disease etc 3) Feeding: special food at every stage of their lives, food supplements, special bowl for food and water 4) Special housing: bedding etc, hygiene, Vet visit, walking 5) Danger to other people and animals 6) Finances 7) Females are bred, in case of dogs twice a year and destroyed when they can no long reproduce. They suffered from malnutrition, exposure and lack of Veterinary care, live under very unhygienic condition, transported under very bad conditions, inadequate water and food, kept in small cages without exercise and socialization, huge problem of overpopulation resulting in euthanasia, or shot, or gassed. Stray animals starve, freeze or hit by cars, used in the laboratories for experiment, in some places dogs spend their entire live in chains or in solitary confinement. Here they suffer various ill health, such as, parvo, Lyme disease, worms, injuries fractures and parasitic infections.