08/06/2025
Data from a US pet hospital in 2002 revealed that between 1995 and 2001 there was a 28% increase in pet owners describing themselves as the father or mother of their animals.
Commercial interests have been quick to capitalise on this behaviour, so pet owners can now send their pets to daycare, weight-loss holidays and spas, massage and homeopathic therapies, as well as taking them to cafés and restaurants and away on holidays.
The vast array of colours and styles of horse rugs/covers and equipment available is testimony to the horse-owner’s participation in this response.
Anthropomorphism—the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities—serves several important psychological, social, and cultural functions:
Epley proposed that anthropomorphism satisfies a desire to feel effective in one’s environment and to increase a sense of social connection – and suggested that it has an important function in humans by reducing uncertainty and increasing understanding of one’s environment, and the tendency positively correlates with loneliness.
In such states of isolation, a lonely person is likely to see an animal as thoughtful and consecrated but less likely to see it as vengeful or deceitful.
Developmental influences, such as the quality of social relationships and feelings of attachment to animals or detachment from other humans, also increase the likelihood of anthropomorphism.
Past surveys revealed that relationships between humans and their animals were more secure than human–human relationships on every measure. In addition, relationships with pets affect other aspects of the pet-owner’s life, perhaps by buffering the experience of negative human social interactions.
However, when humans have expectations that animals ‘understand’ what is required, they are likely to give inappropriate signals to the animals, such as delayed, inconsistent or meaningless reinforcements, resulting in deleterious behavioural changes.
These changes are manifest in conflict behaviours, such as redirected, ambivalent and displacement behaviours, stereotypies and injurious behaviours.
Equitation Science, 2nd Edition
