Category: Animal Cruelty

Fads and crazes: pocket pets and teacup dogs – we never learn.

Fads and crazes have being going on for decades beginning with the hamster in the 1930’s and now pocket pets and teacup dogs.

Whenever the pet trade and animal breeders feel that the market is becoming stale, they are very good at producing and introducing new fads and crazes to keep the gullible and fickle pet acquiring public in the mood for acquiring pets. This has being going on for decades beginning with the hamster in the 1930’s and now pocket pets and teacup dogs. The pet trade are very good at manipulating us by coming up with new species of animals to promote and sell by using social media and clever marketing to make the poor creature a must have.

Fads or crazes for a type of pet come along at regular intervals and many begin in the USA and are often driven by so-called celebrities who if photographed with a certain breed of dog immediately incite a rush to acquire the same.

We are also bizarrely influenced to buy certain animals by movies, particularly animated ones, when children badger their parents who disgracefully submit to their requests. We never seem to learn as back in 1980’s I remember the ninja turtle movies spawned a disastrous craze for baby turtles. The pet trade jumped all over this fad with a lot of help from the media, which resulted in coerced parents buying these tiny creatures to placate their youngsters , with no regard or common sense to their long-term needs and the problems that would occur.

I was working as an animal health inspector at the Animal Quarantine Station at London Heathrow airport at the time and saw these beautiful tiny creatures bred and shipped in their thousands arriving from the USA in aircraft holds. 200 writhing turtles were piled into each small cardboard box, and flown worldwide to meet the demand. Many died or were squashed en-route, thousands died after being bought and thousands abandoned into waterways to take their chances when they grew too big causing environmental and health issues.

In the late nineties we had a craze for chipmunks or small side-striped squirrels driven by the Alvin animated films and in 2010 a television advertising campaign incredibly led people to buy meerkats as pets.

In 2016, the US pet trade was boosted by two animated films ‘Finding Dory’ and the ‘Secret Life of Pets’ which ‘attracted the interest, attention and investment in both new and existing pets’ according to Euromonitor.com pet care industry reports. These films also show the draw of animals to both children and adults as they grossed nearly US$2 billion between them. The fact that we are easily enticed into acquiring live animals on a whim is frightening.

Pocket Pets

Pet rat, pocket pet, rat
Pocket pets is just one of the continual fads and crazes we insist on falling for regardless of the consequences to the poor animals.

Recently we have seen a fad for so-called ‘pocket pets’, their popularity spread by social media all around the world with the obvious consequences. Originally the idea was to market small pets like mice, rats and hamsters as ideal pets for carrying around in your pocket. Apart from anything else, this is an extremely unhygienic idea and of course cruel. It is not really a new fad, but a re-invention as many schoolkids have carried pet mice in their pockets for decades particularly to frighten their teacher.

The market for keeping once popular small mammals was declining and viewed by many as ‘boring’ so something was required to make them more appealing. This was achieved by re-inventing them as ‘pocket pets’.

At first the term pocket pets was restricted to small mammals such as mice, rats and hamsters, but unfortunately the term was soon hijacked and re-branded as any pet ‘the size of a pocket’. This has led to totally unsuitable pets being marketed with small exotic species like skunks, chinchillas, degus, prairie dogs, sugar gliders and flying squirrels and even tortoises and birds, obviously too big for most pockets.

Rabbits were also re-branded when their appeal declined due to fewer people having gardens and so they became ideal ‘house pets‘ and a craze for huge breeds of rabbit was born.

This has in turn created unsuitable and poor standards of care resulting in premature deaths, suffering and more discarded animals. As far as the pet trade is concerned, any animal species can be made into a suitable pet and so skunks have their scent glands removed to make them acceptable.

Designer Dogs

In the UK, whichever breed won the national dog show at Crufts became the must have dog, then we had a craze for macho breeds such as the German Shepherd back in the sixties when everyone was into guard dogs, then Dobermanns and Rottweilers and recently Pit Bulls and Staffordshire Bull Terriers that have become the blight of many parts of the world. But times change and with the help yet again of social media we have progressed to the recent fad for designer cross breeds with nonsense names and even more recently the French Bulldog has come to prominence with 10.5 million photographs of it on Instagram following its celebrity status with people like Lady Gaga.

Handbag and teacup dogs

Then we had a celebrity led craze for “handbag” dogs which were just traditional toy breeds, but  someone had to invent the fashion trend to carry them instead of allowing them to be normal dogs. Not satisfied with handbag dogs we have moved on to another new fad for so-called “Teacup” dogs.

At one time these tiny dogs only existed in natural form as runts of a litter, the last in line, the weakest and sickest which often died or were ignored by their mothers. The clue to the health status of these dogs is in the term runt, but somewhere along the line someone decided what a good idea to start mating these sickly runts by seeking out and intentionally mating undersized dogs and begin a craze for these ‘cute’ miniature dogs.

They are called “new breeds” but of course this is nonsense, but a good marketing point. The market is mainly gullible young girls and other ‘fashion’ conscious women who inexplicably feel they are a necessary accessory and part with hundreds if not thousands of pounds to own one. For every post on the internet advising against buying one there is another extolling the virtues of getting one.

Someone has even invented a standard for a teacup breed which stipulates that they must be less than 17 inches long at age one year and weigh four pounds or less to qualify. This immediately raises problems as there is no guarantee what size it will grow to when bought as a tiny puppy and possibly disappoint its owner. They also come with a never-ending list of health, behavioural and safety issues including being easy prey for hawks, other dogs and predators, being stepped on, dying from falls and requiring special feeding and toileting.

Despite all this it doesn’t deter people from buying them and it is the same for all the other unsuitable pets as well. We have little interest in the needs of animals and the repercussions involved only self-interest and so we never learn – we just move on to the next poor creature to exploit.

No paradise for the Gili Island ponies

Cidomo, pony cart, Gili island, horse abuse
Cidomo pony carts on the narrow streets of Gili islands.

The mass expansion of tourism on the motorless Gili Islands, Lombok is giving local ponies a hard time.

Recently I spent a few days on the Gili islands during a lengthy trip visiting Lombok island and it was fascinating to see the ponies and brightly coloured carts locally known as the “Cidomo”. They are literally the workhorses of the islands which have no motorised transport, although electric-powered scooters are now making their presence known. All supplies for the islands arrive by boat and almost everything is then transported to their final destination by the “Cidomo’, including the tourist hordes who are laden down with their luggage.

Pony cart, Overloading, horse cruelty, Cidomo
A pony taking the strain of heavy cement sacks destined to build more guest houses.

There are many social media and internet sites set up by tourists who have visited the islands decrying the way these ponies are cared for, but ironically in the case of the Gilis it is the pressures of increasing tourism which is causing many of the problems. I have read posts by horse lovers who on one hand hypocritically condemn their use but still cannot resist using them.Most if not all the ponies are in good bodily condition, but it is the way they are driven and loaded which is unsatisfactory. Some of the problems are the result of lack of knowledge and education of the owners and drivers.

The need for evermore guest houses and hotels is one main cause of their overloading with cement, roofing and other building materials and also supplies to keep the tourists happy and healthy such as bottled water and beer. The building spree is also taking away grazing and exercise land for them.

Another problem is the unnecessary overloading by the tourists themselves by their insistence of squeezing four people into a cart with their baggage to save money and by agreeing to pay outlandish fees which only encourages more Cidomos over to be brought to the islands as owners and drivers see this trade as easy money from gullible tourists.

Overloaded pony cart, Cidomo, Gili islands, Lombok, Indonesia
Roofing material destined for new tourist guest houses. The demand causes more hardship for the ponies. Credit: Deborah Jacob

A third issue is the young immature drivers using them to race round at high-speed along the narrow, rutted island streets and tracks, often with the misguided encouragement of the tourists treating it like an adventure theme ride. This becomes a danger to tourists wandering the streets and no doubt must cause the occasional accident. In fact, the driver’s haste is to get back for another fare before the new arrivals do the sensible thing and walk the short distance to their hotel. Most hotels are within walking distance.

The Gilis are a typical example of how tourists visiting an increasingly overloaded tourist destination can inadvertently encourage the abuse of local animals through ignorance of animal welfare issues. In this case it is the lazy tourist who on arrival by ferry at the harbour find lines of cute Cidomos and mistakenly want to take part in what they believe is a bit of local tradition. The more lazy among us also find it easier in the heat to make use of them instead of walking.  It is possible to alleviated the situation by only using the carts to carry their bags and walking beside it, but few think of this.

Hores abuse, pony, Gili Islandss
A Gili pony having a well earned bath at the end of a hard day with its young driver. Credit: Dan Mills

The Gili island cidomos were not put there as a tourist attraction but are a traditional local form of transport that have been in use by the local Sisak people thoughout recent history and are still widely used all over Lombok and other islands providing a taxi service for many of the poverty-stricken residents. Compared with the ponies on the Gilis these are the ones that are really suffering and where the focus for concern is required.

Many local residents rely on this cheap form of taxi service on Lombok.

The Gili ponies are not as bad off as those on Lombok and other islands which most tourist either do not see or take notice of. We had the time and inclination to visit the suburbs, communities and markets of Mataram the capital of Lombok interacting with the local people, where it was obvious that there was a great need for the use of Cidomos, which suffer greatly from overloading, the dangers of heavy traffic and poor husbandry. They offer cheap vital transport for poorer people and suffer far greater hardships than those on the Gilis.

Cidomo, suffering of ponies,
A Cidomo on the streets of Mataram, the capital of Lombok, struggling through busy traffic with local residents returning from the market. Many people cannot afford taxis and so Cidomos are a lifeline.

There are many campaigns and social media reports of the cruel treatment of Gili ponies, some of which is well-founded but much of it is overstated and out of context. Rarely do you hear about the plight of those on mainland Lombok who are in more urgent need of help. There are charities and organisations attempting to ease some of the hardships which are worth supporting, but tourists also have a responsibility to lessen their load by not using them out of laziness or for photo opportunities.

When we arrived on the Gilis we struggled the 800 yards on foot to our guest house in the heat, while others zipped by on the Cidomos and yes it was a struggle, but our consciences were clear.