A passenger boards the MRT at Ximen Station pushing a stylish double decker dog carriage with two Bichon Frise. The sight is common in Taiwan, where pet ownership along with the attendant market for accessories has experienced a boom. Stores are now filled with all kinds of goods and products from homemade snacks and portable utensils to custom apparel and luxury fashion.
The inclination to propose an anthropomorphic analogy of dogs as infants and owners as doting parents is almost irresistible. Some dogs even ride in strollers wearing diapers even though they are clearly able to run and walk on the street on four legs. Such instances beg the question of whose comfort and desires are being fulfilled.
Researchers who explore this phenomenon suggest that identifying animals as children with many human traits is not merely evidence of the power of marketing for accessories. More importantly, it seems to have evolved with society’s increasing lack of interest in procreation. Indeed, in Taiwan, levels of fertility have dropped to .89 children per woman and rank among the lowest in the world.