Pet Nation - The Love Affair That Changed America

Informationen zum Autor Mark Cushing is the founding partner and CEO of the Animal Policy Group and a Stanford honors graduate. He acts as Trustees Counsel for Lincoln Memorial University and has served as adjunct faculty and lecturer at Lincoln Memorial University, Lewis & Clark College, and the University of Oregon law school. Klappentext An inside look at the forces behind how our pets become treasured members of the family. In the last 20 years pets have gone from the backyard to sleeping on our beds, then showing up in every corner of America. Pet Nation tells the story of this seismic shift and the economic, media, legal, political, and social dramas springing from this cultural transformation.Since 1998 the pet population in the U.S. has almost doubled -- about two-thirds of the country now owns a pet. No longer left to wander the neighborhood, dogs and cats eat special food, get individualized medical attention, and even fly in the cabin. As founder of the Animal Policy Group, Mark Cushing provides an inside look at the rise of Pet Nation, tracking the myriad ways pets are acquired (a "Canine Freedom Train" runs south to north), reporting on pet rights legislation (and the unseen problems that come with elevating their status), pet healthcare (revealing the truth and myths about large scale breeders), and discovering that despite what many organizations would have us believe, there is a shortage of dogs.Insightful, surprising, and full of great stories, Pet Nation opens our eyes to the big changes happening in front of us right now. It shows us not only what our love of animals says about pets, it shows us what it says about ourselves. Leseprobe 9780593083864|excerpt Cushing / PET NATION • 1 • IN THE BACKYARD NO MORE The Transformation of Pets in American Society Two strangers meet in a park, each walking with a dog on a leash. They don’t ask each other where they work, or live, or went to college; or about the kind of car they drive, or their favorite football team. They say one, perhaps, two things: “What kind of dog is that? What’s her name?” Twenty minutes later, they know everything about each other’s pet and then part ways as friends. Not have-­each-­other-­over-­to-­dinner friends, but friends who look forward to seeing each other, and their dogs, again. When you consider the condition of pets in America before Pet Nation, it seems as if everything was photographed in black-­and-­white or sepia, all stills and no video. Pets were scattered here and there, nearly invisible, as if they didn’t matter. Then they began to appear everywhere. Before long, pets were transformed from a diversion to the center of our culture and so many lives. This wasn’t a purely personal experience; pets became social glue, the common bond between people with little else in common, who would never otherwise have spoken to each other. That’s the essence of Pet Nation, and why I wrote this book. I majored in medieval and renaissance history at Stanford (how’s that for spotting a trend?), went to law school, and became a business trial lawyer. I figured I’d spend my life in a courtroom, raise a family, and see the world. If you had asked me for a thousand scenarios that might unfold in my life, building the Animal Policy Group and becoming a leading advocate and adviser in the pet world would not have made the list. Not even close. Fortunately, that is what happened. In 2005, I received a phone call from Banfield Pet Hospital’s founder, asking me to lead a pet lobbying effort with our federal government in Washington, DC. This was possible then because everything was changing with pets in America. Dogs and cats went from the backyard to the bedroom, and then dogs headed out the front door of the house to every corner of the United States, every town, suburb, and city. Pets stepped into political and legal arenas, stirring up i...

Product details

• Authors: Mark Cushing
• Publisher: Avery Publishing Group
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2020
• EAN: 9780593083864
• ISBN: 978-0-593-08386-4
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 159 mm x 236 mm x 27 mm
• Subjects: Guides > Nature; PETS / Cats / General, NATURE / Animal Rights, PETS / Dogs / General, Dogs as pets