Summary Of The Pet Owner's Burden By Emilia Di Luca

The overall argument of “The Pet Owner’s Burden” by Emilia Di Luca is: people humanize their pets to fill a void in their lives. Di Luca discusses that by humanizing one’s pet, they are satisfying their need for power and affection, and humanizing a pet only produces happiness for the human. Di Luca brings up two major points as to why people humanize their pets: for power or for companionship. Originally, a person domesticated their animals to aid in hunting and livestock. This domestication developed into household pets. Although animals do not resemble human traits, Di Luca states that people continue to alter an animals appearance to suit the person. Humans often give excess goods to their pets to make their lives as comfortable as acceptable to human standards. Traditional animal habits are perceived as almost barbaric for pets. Thus, humans give animals beds and groom them to a standard that satisfies the person. Di Luca uses four main points to support her argument. The first is domestication and dominance. She explains that although an animal’s primary use to people was to aid with hunting and livestock, it quickly grew as a way to separate pets from wildlife. Next, people began to project their values onto their pets to assert dominance. Di Luca states that humans often feel obligated to give their pets a proper human

By starting with a personal experience, she shows that the paper is relatable. However, if Di Luca chose two major points to focus on and expanded on those, the paper would have been stronger. I found that by trying to focus on four majors theories, the paper felt rushed and crowded. It seemed as if she was tried to prove her argument so much that it became unorganized. By picking two major points Di Luca could have expanded into greater detail how they supported her