Pets and Children (1908)

AUTHOR: Gilman, Charlotte Perkins

SUMMARY (Deborah Madsen):

Gilman's concern with the cruelty of imprisoning animals is explored here in the context of domestic pets. She defines a pet as a mix of slave, parasite, spoiled child, and prisoner that, if its condition were voluntary, would not require to be caged or chained or bound like a slave. Pets, she remarks, are deliberately bred to be dependent upon humans and devoid of use except as the object of what Gilman describes as a misguided maternal impulse to nurture. If childless women need an outlet for their frustrated "mother-love," as Gilman phrases it, then they should care for orphaned children. She anticipates an objection to this proposal, that pets are easier to keep than children because the pet can be sold or killed or otherwise treated as property; similarly, Gilman also notes the various forms of physical mutilation to which pets are subjected (like amputating the tails and ears of dogs)  to please or accommodate the needs of their owners.