Humans have kept dogs for several thousand years, but in what ways has this relationship changed over time in the Western world? Dogs today are treated like family members, and the idea of leaving a pet dog in Houston seems abhorrent. Yet upon domestication dogs were (according to 'Sapiens') little more than smoke alarms and hunters, (and spare food themselves if necessary); they hadn't yet been selectively bred for smallness or cuteness or sociability. They were livestock. Hernan Cortez wrote in 1520 that "the Aztecs raised and sold little dogs as food." Dogs are eaten, to this day, in Vietnam. In Ireland, where dogs are beloved family members, only 60 years ago blood sports and dog fighting were common. From relatives I've learned that many dogs (kept with families) were 'spaded' when they got old, and unwanted kittens were drowned. Nowadays, crimes of abuse where the animals survive are punished with several years in prison.

So is this my misreading of a few bad eggs, or is there a trend toward greater love and inclusion? How has our relationship to pets changed over the last few hundred or thousand years?