A few weeks ago, I was interviewed on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) on an intriguing topic close to my heart: Can We Love Our Animals Too Much? I believe the answer is yes, many of us do sometimes love our animals too much, we lose perspective, turn out love into anger at humans, exploit animals to make ourselves feel better, mistreat them in the name of caring for them, overfeed them, medicate them with human-style anxiety and depression drugs, treat them as children rather than learn how to train them as animals, project our human neuroses onto them and increasingly see them only through the prism of rescue and abuse.

Is is loving to crate animals for years in shelters so that we can feel noble? Is it loving to treat animals like children, and to see them as human children?

I love animals, they are my work and a large part of my life. I have sometimes loved them too much and they have always paid for it. I am learning how to love them in a way that is good for me and for them. Not easy in our culture, which is increasingly emotionalizing animals, and as we become fragmented and disconnected from our world, we are looking to animals, especially dogs and cats, to fill the holes in our lives.

The interview was long and thoughtful, I am always happy to agree to do interviews with the CBC, they actually research topics and offer time and space to answer questions, somethings that rarely happens in the world of hyper-and-combative American media. I believe true animal advocacy isn’t just about rescue, isn’t about turning the acquisition of animals into a moral imperative. It is about understanding their true nature, listening them and respect the fact that they are not furry versions of us, they are not like us, they deserve to be respected for what they are, not for what we need them to be.

In any case, it was a great interview and I enjoyed it, and if you are interested you can get to it here.