I’m a little behind on posts unfortunately, so I will put up another Utopian Status Article, and will have some new stuff up, hopefully, over the weekend. This article about future pets was originally printed in the Summer 2001 edition of the Utopian Status of America. Enjoy!
The more things change, the more they stay the same, right? Not in all cases. The Prediction will introduce some possibilities for the future. These will range from whimsical ideas, to dire warnings, and everything in between, all will be based on current trends in our society, whether good or bad. Perhaps these will be looked back on as Nostridomis like predictions, but don’t count on it.
Future Pets
Everybody is familiar with the genetic research being done now, cloning of animals, genetically engineered plants, etc. The idea of creating and molding plants, animals, and certainly people, is a very powerful temptation, and it would be naive to think that it won’t happen. There is certainly reason to be cautious, however, and because of this experimentation on humans is not perceived to be an ethical idea. What does this have to do with pets? Well it’s simple. Genetic research will happen, but perhaps to animals first, as an introduction of what can be done. I present two ideas of pets you can expect to see in the next 50 years.
Forever puppy:
Everybody loves puppies and kittens, they’re so cute, and small, and curious. But puppies and kittens grow up, and often people lose interest in their pet once it grows out of the cute baby stage. So what if you could stop an animals aging with the genetics equivalent of a fountain of youth? What if your dog would always look like a cute little puppy, or your cat was always the adorably little kitten it started life as? The idea of stopping the aging process is one that people want to know about, lots of people don’t want to grow older, and the idea we could do it almost insures that somebody will try. Is there a market for forever puppy and kitten? A lot of people bought pet rocks in the seventies, so this seems like a fad bound to happen. Will it last? Probably not, the idea of an old, arthritic dog that looks like a dying puppy will certainly end such a trend, but would it stop it from happening?
Bonsai pets:
Lots of people love having pets that are a little different from everybody else’s, perhaps it’s a rare breed of dog, a reptile, or a ferret. But what if you could have a real exotic pet? Some people try, they buy a bear cub, or a lion cub, or a pot bellied pig. The problem with these animals is that they grow up into big animals that become dangerous to deal with, bears and lions and pigs all easily out weigh most people, but what if that wasn’t true. What if genetics could create a miniature version of exotic animals? Surely it must be possible, we’ve bred tiny animals for thousands of years, resulting in miniature horses, toy sized dogs, etc. So what about a house cat sized lion or tiger? A dog sized bear? A pig that can’t grow to 1000 pounds? Or how about a 2 foot tall elephant? Imagine, any animal around could be made house sized, you could have a safari of giraffes, elephants, and zebras in your back yard. While genetic engineering on animals may not be any more ethical than experimenting on people, the law, and society seem to allow for it. Will this result in genetically mutated pets? Only time will tell, but remember who told you about them first.
