A Collective Stereographic Photo Essay on Key Aspects of Animal Companionship: The Truth About Dogs and Cats

Academy of Marketing Science Review, 2001 by B, Morris, Stephens, Debra Lynn, Day, Ellen, Holbrook, Sarah M, Strazar, Gregor

Morris B. Holbrook is the Dillard Professor of Marketing, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (212-873-7324; mbh3@columbia.edu). Debra Lynn Stephens is a Visiting Associate Professor of Marketing, School of Business Administration, University of Portland, Portland, OR 97203 (503-283-7275; dlsinsight@aol.com). Ellen Day is Professor of Marketing, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 (706-542-3769; eday@terry.uga.edu). Sarah M. Holbrook is a psychotherapist in private practice, 140 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10024 (212-799-2389). Gregor Strazar is a graduate student in General Management, School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (gstrazar@umich.edu). The authors thank the informants for sharing their experiences. They also thank Carol, Wendy, Barbara, and Allison for their help recruiting informants. Finally, they gratefully acknowledge the support of the Columbia Business School's Faculty Research Fund.

A Collective Stereographic Photo Essay on Key Aspects of Animal Companionship: The Truth About Dogs and Cats

Not surprisingly, many of us admit our animal companions into the most intimate areas of our lives. We are not in the least embarrassed when a dog sees us in the shower or overhears an argument. In this, a companion animal provides an intimacy that exceeds any we may experience with virtually any other human being, including our spouses and children; the intimacy is on a par with that of mother and newborn infant, or of our own skins (Thomas 1996, p. ix).

These words from Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (1996) summarize the gist of the present essay on key aspects of animal companionship. Specifically, we focus on the essence of pet-related consumption experiences and on how our animal companions are welcomed into our most intimate or private moments, are loved, are treated as family members in general or as children in particular, and are deeply mourned when their cherished lives have come to an end. That pets offer us humans warm and enduring companionship is well-documented (Beck and Katcher ed. 1983; Hirschman 1994; Katcher and Beck ed. 1983; Loyer-Carlson 1992; Sussman ed. 1985). Owners have characterized their pets as children, friends, or playmates; and most attest to the unconditional regard offered by their companion animals (Holbrook 1996b, 1997a; Kowalski 1991; Stephens and Hill 1996; Weissman 1991). This study delves more deeply into these and other aspects of the human-animal relationship. It explores how consumption experiences with pets or animal companions add meaning to our lives as humans.

For example, as the second author's cats age and suffer the ill effects of arthritis, kidney failure, bowel problems, and hyperthyroidism, her commitment to them becomes increasingly conscious and exacts emotional, financial, social, and temporal costs that she cannot imagine sustaining -- with such great largesse or so little ambivalence -- were the cats human. The sources of her devotion to her feline companions are their vulnerability and their serene, affectionate constancy. They are her refuge and her delight.

The second author is not alone in this partiality to another species. A colleague who spotted the cat photos on her desk volunteered a history of his own beloved felines, commenting that he wept openly in the veterinarian's office when one of his cats had to be euthanized because of a terminal illness. "I didn't cry like that when my mother died," he mused.

Formal surveys abound with evidence of the special place that animal companions occupy in this society. A recent example is the American Animal Hospital Association's 1999 survey of 1,200 animal-companion owners in the U.S. and Canada (AAHA 2000). Almost two-thirds of the respondents report that they celebrate their pets' birthdays; almost half share the bed with their pet; more than half have taken time off from work to care for a sick pet; and more than four out of five refer to themselves as their pet's mom or dad.

Like human children, animal companions are the targets or recipients of their caregivers' projections, expectations, and desires. And, as with human children, these internal mental representations lead to kindness, love, and nurturing (or -- conversely, when the process breaks down -- to emotional and physical abuse). This study focuses primarily on pet owners who are deeply and positively engaged with their animals. By means of personal essays and photographs, it explores these owners' experiences of -- and with -- their animal companions.

Medical, Psychological, and Psychotherapeutic Benefits of Animal Companions As one example of how animal companions enhance consumers' well-being, we might cite the burgeoning research in support of the medical, psychological, and psychotherapeutic benefits of pet-related consumption experiences.

Medical Benefits. More than two decades of research indicate that animal companions help to reduce stress, to improve cardiovascular fitness, and thereby to reduce the risk of heart disease while increasing the survival rates of individuals who suffer from heart ailments. For a review of this literature, please see Medical Benefits of Animal Companions.