First, why animals are such an essential part of our culture?
Well this answer also has a name: "the biophilic hypothesis". According to this hypothesis, animals sense before humans whether a natural disaster or substantial environmental change is going to occur, or if a predator arrives. It may be that in the past, those who were more attentive to the animals' behavioral patterns and emotional responses managed to survive better than those who were not empathetic toward them. And perhaps for this reason even today, an emotional connection to living gives us a sense of security. Even looking at animals routinely, can give us peace
The competing hypothesis is that the feelings we feel towards animals are merely a side effect of our emotion towards other human beings. That is, a connection of evolutionary value. We react emotionally before a baby's because it helps human survival. According to this hypothesis, our reaction to puppies stems from its resemblance to a human baby.
We recognize a human-like emotion in a barking or bouncing dog. Evolution has accustomed us to responding to people's emotions, and dogs benefit from it. According to this hypothesis, evolution plays on our brains and makes us think we should get closer to living. But, this is only true for some people.
Why do some people choose to adopt an animal and even see it as a family member when there are others who do not care at all?
First of all, let's reinforce a familiar myth: Pet owners are really similar to their animals. This has been empirically proven in a study where people were asked to match pictures of animals to pictures of people. They were much more successful at it than if they had been randomly matched.
The similarity between the animals and the animals themselves, was higher when the dogs were purebred, than when they were involved. On the face of it, people seem to choose purebred dogs to represent them, whereas in adopting mixed breed dogs, they have other motives. It also turns out that the owners and animals were judged to have the same level of beauty, roughly
What about similarities in character? When people are asked to describe the character of their animal, they will often describe a character that is close to their own. And when asked about the character of someone else's animal? They will usually get stuck in the description, and sometimes admit that they do not feel it has any character at all
Who breeds what kind of animal?
The American placement company Careerbuilder conducted a survey among 2,300 employees in the United States who own pets, to try to find a connection between animal and profession. The conclusions are as follows: CEOs and senior executives in organizations are mostly dog owners. The employees with the highest salaries are actually the snake owners. Bird owners are most satisfied with their job.
In terms of the professions chosen: entertainers, IT people, military personnel and nurses in hospitals are usually dog owners. Doctors, lab technicians, machine operators and real estate agents prefer cats. Financiers, hotels, manpower and transportation love fish
It is possible to mark a stereotype in our culture, according to which those who do not raise animals are selfish, cold and uncaring. But this has not been proven in research. Pet owners will more often have a permanent job, be married with children, be richer and have their own landlords. The inanimate animals, on the other hand, are not necessarily cold or unsociable, but they do prefer to be alone for long periods of time. They are more independent and less communal and they do not like long-term commitments. And these people are happy with their decision. They do not think they are missing anything else they would get a pet.
And what about people who raise animals?
Many pet breeders are drawn to the fact that the animal is not judgmental. Does not bother the dog if you do not look good or have a deformity or limitation. Even if you left the dog at home all day and were late for a walk with him, he will happily jump on you when you return home. So raising animals is considered appropriate for someone who feels the world is judging him, and wants rest from it. To claim that cat owners own a cat to learn from it to get "feline" characteristics in their character. They learn from the cat that it is allowed to be a soloist or look for the most comfortable spot in the house, and they will still love you.