Vet P.O.V. Food is love for pets...but why?

Ever thought about why it is we feel the urge to offer treats and tidbits to our beloved creatures? I have. I’ve thought about it a lot. After all, if I can plumb the depths of the American psyche on that one I think I’ll have earned myself a Nobel Prize––or at least a MacArthur Grant.

Here’s a short, would-be pet story to illustrate:

Last Saturday I spent the afternoon kayaking with my beau. After spending five hours of the morning treating sickies at the hospital, I kinda thought I deserved a mini-vacation on Biscayne Bay. Little did I know that I’d be dealing with more of the same.

After a delicious kayak out to a local sand bar, a picnic and a swim, we’d headed back to the beach. After loading up for the 30-minute trek back, I spied something “unnaturally” green in the water. Paddling closer, it turned out to be an exhausted iguana.

After fishing it out of the water, I placed it on the bow of the boyfriend’s kayak where it sat vigilantly as we paddled the waves back. Instead of jumping off the boat at the pine-treed beach, as we had predicted, it just sat there.

And here’s where I get to my point: People soon flocked to the kayak to offer the creature tidbits and leaves (as if a spent iguana would take anything from a gaggle of too-curious onlookers). After the piece de résistance was offered (Cheez-Whiz on a Dorito), I figured I’d have to put a stop to this ridiculous charade. I put him in my car and drove to the nearest sanctuary.

But it got me to thinking: What is it about humans that we feel the need to FEED everything? It’s alive...feed it!

Signs must be put up at zoos, wildlife sanctuaries and parks to keep people from throwing their half-consumed fried chicken and other picnic detritus to the animals.

Feeding pigeons and ducks at parks and local lakes is considered a bucolic pastime.

Cat feeding out the back door or at a local parking lot is a way of life for many (sans TNR and appropriate medical care in most cases).
Feeding time at the zoo is always the main attraction.

Wildife programming on television is rife with predation scenarios and other gastronomic delights.

Stuffing pets to obese proportions is deemed socially acceptable...

and its corollary: A thin pet is a travesty worthy of whispered puppy park sanctions. (“You’d think she’d feed him every once in a while.”)

Perhaps this is just American culture talking. The rest of the world may not live with this Cracker Barrel mentality and dietary obsessiveness. Offering “cheese food” laced with more “cheese food” to a helpless iguana probably doesn’t occur to most humans on the planet outside this fair country’s four corners.

The egregiousness of the Dorito act is what startled me out of my post-kayak lethargy. (Never mind that I overheard plotting to get the iguana captured and sold in our local Seaquarium’s parking lot.) And it got me to thinking:

This impulse to feed things is exactly what I’m up against in my daily life as a veterinarian. It’s no wonder that imparting a sense of urgency to the need for weight loss in pets seems so sisyphean. After all, the obesity epidemic in pets will be depressingly difficult to counter if the desire to feed is as ridiculously compulsive as the need to smear Cheez-Whiz on an iguana.

July 14th, 2009

Add Comment35 Comments

GREAT article!

deb bresnahan, meridian, ms July 14th, 2009 10:40:34 AM

Well this is an interesting post. And I agree that most people that really love animals do feed them way too much. But a problem I have in the area where I live is that people don't feed their animals at all. Maybe they get fed once a week if they are lucky. I try really hard not to feed mine too much. It is an obsession to feed animals.

Margaret Elmendorf July 14th, 2009 10:41:36 AM

Thsi brought up a lot of social questions that i'm going to enjoy pondering. I guess i never overly thought about the prevalence of "feeding" in our culture.

And i hope the Iguana has a good life.

Sarah July 14th, 2009 11:09:06 AM

Wow, apparently I've never seen even a picture of a wild iguana before, because WOW that is green. Before I started reading I thought it was an artificial decoration of some sort. Wow.

I think the feeding thing is pretty simple really. Animals react to it, and come closer, and people like looking at and interacting with animals. Food is an absolute baseline of communication. Something that can't understand our speech, or even our body language does understand food.

As for the choice of a dorito, well, his dog probably like to eat them if he gets a chance...

puppynerd July 14th, 2009 11:14:03 AM

People like interacting with animals. Wild animals aren't very cuddly and they're not particularly interested in the goings on of people.

Give them a snack and suddenly people are a lot more interesting.

Sheyna July 14th, 2009 11:44:58 AM

I think caring, and with that a lot of feeding, is why I love raising livestock/farming/gardening. There is something so deeply satisfying about ending a day in which everything around you is better (fuller, happier, safer and satisfied) as a result of your efforts.

But just anything, it should be part of the pleasure, not all of it. When it becomes one sided (such as the crazed need to stuff food in animal as you describe, ignoring its other needs and limits) then its an illness that we as humans need to address with some non-furry counselers.

It's getting worse regarding the image of what "fit" is in a pet. I know at least 2 people who took working weight dogs in to new graduate vets who were accused of abuse. AC had to come in, as well as another vet, who told them they were ridiculous (kudos to experienced vets and educated AC). The charge defeated deliberate starvation. Why? Because you could feel the dogs ribs with your hand.

Wendy July 14th, 2009 11:45:20 AM

Boy, you could go all kinds of places with this. A few thoughts...

Feeding is typically a positive reinforcement for any critter. It does work, so we use that technique a lot. Myself (as feeder and feedee) included. =)

But what we Americans tend to forget is the quality of that food, something you point to in your post. Would you have reacted the same way if a piece of fruit had been offered?

And lastly, again, I simply can't understand why folks don't understand that an animal's skeleton was built to carry only a certain amount of weight. I would no doubt be one of the people turned in for abuse if I had shown up with any of my whippets, particularly the puppy, who looks like a bean pole on stilts. But I'm willing to bet my dogs could outlast your average housepet on about any physical activity. They're athletes, so we feed them like they are. If you couldn't feel the ribs on mine, you should turn me in for abuse. ARGH.

BTW, Dr. K, when dealing with the "sickies" at the beach -- were you referring to the iguana, or the onlookers? ;)

Julie in OH July 14th, 2009 12:53:05 PM

I know! I am so guilty of this impulse. We humans have enough trouble conflating food with love in our own lives and diets- and that's another area where I am awful, if I love you and don't want to say it in words, I say it with baking, or steak, or homemade mole sauce. With dogs, we can't say it in words, or rather, we can't be understood. But my dog LOVES FOOD. Loves it to an extent that is rare even among dogs. How did I get him to bond to me when I got him? Hand-feeding. And it worked. So yeah, when I want to express affection for him, I can pet him of praise him or walk with him or rub his belly or play tug, and I do those things, but none of them work as well as food, in terms of putting joy in his whole body language, and the satisfaction of having communicated my human urges to the dog on mine. However, I have a very small, very skinny dog. Yes, you can feel his ribs. When he curls up on you you can feel his shoulderblades poking out at you. The vet says this is perfect for him, and he should stay that size, so I try really hard, so far with great success. Part of what helps is that he has never been full, ever, or ever shown any indication that he was even less hungry than before. So yeah, I get a bit inured to his pathetic looks. But the other solution I have found? Give him treats! Cut his meals in half or entirely and carry them around to feed to him if we are going to be out and about all day, or doing a lot of training. Otherwise, he gets a few (honestly just a few) treats for training purposes on a normal day, but a bunch more if we are out exercising, which we often are. And as long as I feed him when we are in motion, he is happy AND the same exact weight he was when I first took him to the vet.

getting hungry now July 14th, 2009 12:55:13 PM

I think it's a nurturing instinct - or maybe rather a culturally ingrained behavior. When word gets out that someone in the neighborhood is ill, watch all the casseroles and chicken soup that strart pouring in! And all of us can relate to feeling panicked about a sick pet that won't eat. For many people, it's not just that food = love, but that having a good appetite = health.

Interesting question as to whether or not this sort of thing happens in other cultures.

Barb July 14th, 2009 01:53:38 PM

Yeah, I agree with Barb that it is a basic nurturing instinct that goes way beyond animals and is essentially human. My own area of specialization is literature--and food motifs are very common in literature from a lot of different cultures. The giving of food does express love, the withholding cruelty--and food can be used to express all sorts of distorted relationships. Think of Dickens's Oliver Twist asking for "more" food--an underfed child creates poignancy. Or think of Dickens's Miss Havisham with her rotted wedding cake.

These behaviors are so fundamental to being human that it is probably no wonder that food gets so charged emotionally for our pets and for us.

Arlene July 14th, 2009 02:51:22 PM

Ok, I am a softie, but if that thing was in our community.... well, they are exotics and we are on a serious eradication program. One nearby island has even hired hunters to kill them.

So, I hope you checked with the "sanctuary" you took it to in order to find out if it was ok, or if it would destroy what they have worked to build.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and we do have to be cognizant of our unintentioned, though well meaning, consequences.

Maybe taking it home to your menagerie would have been a better choice. Then, it would not be able to reproduce.

Carolyn July 14th, 2009 02:58:25 PM

I agree with the nuturing instinct and getting the animal's attention theories, but I also think that some of it is driven by humanizing animals. If my dog is my "baby" and I like to eat ice cream, then my "baby" likes ice cream. Nevermind that I am over-weight; my "baby" must have whatever I like.

My mom is almost compulsive about feeding human food to her dogs. She thinks it's funny when I get angry and tell her that she's shaving years off their lives.

Unfortunately, my kitty is chubby enough without human food. I'm sure some would find her cute (and she is), but I'm horribly embarassed every time we take her to the vet and run through the spiel on how to get her to drop 50% of her weight.

Moo's Mommy July 14th, 2009 03:15:22 PM

I'm a lactation consultant. I'd argue that the urge to feed any creature we think is helpless or that we simply want to make a connection with, is hard - wired, esp. in women. Nurturing at the breast = nutrition + comfort.

hornblower July 14th, 2009 03:29:36 PM

I really don't think this is an American thing, nor an anthropomorphising thing. I think it's a human thing. And though it can go horribly wrong when it combines with bad habits, delusions, and projection in the case of fat pets, junk food diets, and panhandling wildlife, I think it is one of the things I like best about our species' basic impulses. As soon as we are living far enough off the bone to have any food surplus, and sometimes when we haven't, we look for ways to share that with animals -- pets, livestock, working animals, wild animals. The prisoner's mouse, the hermit's squirrel, the birds at the feeder.

Konrad Lorenz once wrote of his own overwhelming impulse to "stuff its mouth with good food" on being confronted with a hatchling Jackdaw. He said he didn't even like the little bird, thought it was kind of repulsive -- but he still had an overarching urge to FEED it. Feeding things that gaped and squealed for food was part of his ethology.

Oh, and that iguana does look thin. Not enough muscle in the base of his tail, and you shouldn't see that line of folded skin on his side.

H. Houlahan July 14th, 2009 03:38:10 PM

I belie it is social/biological from eons of the constant struggle to even get enough to eat to survive. We on a gut level, so to speak, are compelled to feed those we care about or whom we perceive to be weakened. It is a construct we have outgrown technologically but still endures. It is how we nurture. Even when it is no longer needed.

tygerhart July 14th, 2009 05:03:05 PM

Wild animals ignore us or run away most of the time. If you hold out food, though, sometimes they will come up to you or look at you. Many people seem to really, really want to be 'aknowledged' by animals. I think that's why people will bark at/talk to dogs or other pets that aren't their own, or in other ways try to get an animal's attention. Food is just an easy way to get that wanted attention from an animal that would otherwise not give a fig about you.

Pai July 14th, 2009 07:31:11 PM

We get creatures to like us by feeding them. Even plants respond visibly (if slowly) to being watered and fed.

I think it's more okay, socially, to seek approval from animals/plants directly than it is from people. But of course there are people who offer food to other humans almost as compulsively as many people offer food to animals.

Galadriel July 14th, 2009 07:33:33 PM

I spend every day talking to people about feeding their pets properly, and not 'loving' them to death by feeding too much. I have had many women tell me that they just hate to see anything hungry, and insist on stuffing their chihuahua with enough food for a lab. Then I adoped Zeke from the shelter. He doesn't care about food, very different from any other dog I've had. He will go 24 hours without eating a thing. I worried about it at first, and my husband would laugh at me. I finally made peace with just giving him 15 minutes in his crate with his food, and then putting the food away if he doesn't eat (if I didn't put it away, our schnauzer would finish it off quickly, and be the size of a lab!). I guess I understand those clients better now and have a bit more sympathy! However, doritos are NOT part of the dogs' experience with food (and not often in mine either!)!

Sassy July 14th, 2009 07:46:46 PM

Did you see this:

Pet airline welcomes 'pawsengers'

Sian July 15th, 2009 04:23:41 AM

Pets enjoy getting treats, so much so that they have come to expect it. However, humans are no different. If an airline doesn't offer us complimentary snacks, we go nuts!

James July 15th, 2009 08:58:32 AM

..."skeleton was built to carry only a certain amount of weight."

And here I got my goats to carry the weight. I could've just gotten some skeletons... ;-)

Bob Jones July 15th, 2009 09:40:47 AM

Fantastic post! I often wonder this myself... why people feel the need to shove treats in my dog's face. So he'll like you? He's a social phob, give it up.

My vet has a painting in her exam room of a massively obese cat named "chunk" (per his food bowl next to him). The cat is sitting on scale and the scale is read upside down DED (or 030 on the scale). Makes a point.

jen July 15th, 2009 10:41:31 AM

Carolyn: The sanctuary I use (as do most in Miami-Dade County where I live) has a policy of euthanizing iguanas. But they don't always. It all depends on who's on duty. I, for one, am OK with this. Better to euthanize than let him drown in the Bay, I say. but that's just me.

Dr. Patty Khuly July 15th, 2009 12:10:27 PM

The appearance/feeding issue is not exclusive to the U.S.. I have been accused (Germans are quick to give their opinions on what is none of their business, but I digress) of not feeding my Boston Terrier enough because you can see his ribs and his abdomen tapers between his rib cage and his hind legs. Ironically he has access to all of the Iams Science Diet he would like to eat along with 7.5 ounces of canned food daily. Of course I see locals with small breeds that can't walk up the street without wheezing since they are so fat...

Lee in Germany July 18th, 2009 12:44:30 PM

Lee: I've seen your Boston, as you know. He's perfect. Sometimes you just have to ignore the "friendly advice." I do all the time with Vincent. God forbid anyone should have a fit Frenchie.

Dr. Patty Khuly July 18th, 2009 07:27:45 PM

Have not read the other responses yet.

I think we do this, because in our culture--as you alluded to in your post--sharing food IS caregiving. Food is love to us, so we naturally extend it to our animal friends (general "us," not anyone specific.)

In my own household, the cats are on a strict feeding schedule, and food treats are few and far between. They get cuddles and playtime instead. Every once in a while, they get catnip. Very rarely do they get food treats, and then it's cat treats--NOT cheese food on top of more cheese food. (That made me giggle.)

I do have a couple who are heavy. In one case, food is not the whole story. We don't know what the issue is, but needless to say I watch her and the other "chubbo" closely.

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