Question:
I am hoping that you may be able to address a question on which there is great debate.A person working for a major pet food company claims that, due to advances in commercial pet foods and vaccines, pets are living longer.I'm going by the Newfoundland dogs (Newfs) and cats we owned, plus the pets our friend had 30 years ago. The lifespan of the Newf then was approximately 20 years, and now it is unusual to see a Newf over 10. This also applies to cats and other breeds of dogs. Our pets were fed table scraps and never vaccinated, and yet they had a much longer lifespan.I would love to hear your input on this. Is there any documentation that pets are actually living longer than their counterparts 30 years ago?.
A.M., London, Ontario Mar 07, 2004
Answer:
There is a similar question in regards to human medical "progress": Are people really living longer? Indigenous, pre-agricultural peoples lived longer lives than the average poor person during the industrial revolution, from the working class and disenfranchised peasantry. Past agricultural civilizations had many health problems due to poor nutrition and diseases from sickly livestock, linked with poor land-use and animal husbandry practices as well as lack of sanitation and pure water.We can look at the declining health of the populace today against the backdrop of human overpopulation, where millions endure malnutrition and lack of basic hygiene and health care, and millions of others suffer from over-consumption, environmental pollution, and contamination of air, food and water.The same applies to our companion animals. Pets that are overfed, over-vaccinated, under-stimulated, sedentary, afflicted with genetic disorders, and living with little or no contact with their own kind have a poorer quality of lif
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