Final Self-Reflection

Because of this project, I now respect cats a little more than I have previously. I am a dog person and will always be, but after learning the history of the domestication of cats, I will agree that cats have been quite valuable to society. This new-found respect was highlighted recently over Thanksgiving break, when I found out that there were several little mice living in our home. After several (very frustrated) failed attempts at catching them, I silently conceded that I wish I had a cat to catch them for me.

The topics and the things we learned in class did not surprise me much. As a senior in animal sciences, I had already been exposed to most, if not all, of these topics. However I still enjoyed class, even though a  lot of the lectures made me sad or want to cry. The issues that impacted me the most were violence to animals, pet loss/owner grief and the 'Mine' documentary. It is really upsetting to see any kind of violence that inflicts pain on an animal, because they are so undeserving of it. It is also very painful lose a pet that you've bonded closely with, and it's even worse when you have to leave them behind due to a natural disaster. I think that the emotional toll that this takes on people is extremely underrated and ignored, making it harder to cope with.

Overall, this course re-informed my beliefs that animals are deserving of respect and humane treatment. From the lectures on animal emotion and intelligence, it is clear that we simply cannot ignore the fact that at the very core of it all, they are just like us: living, sentient creatures with one ultimate goal in life - to survive.