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Exploring the Impact of Pet-Friendly Urban Design
Christine C. Llarenas
Modernization changes people’s lives, however, this change doesn’t just affect
the lives of humans but also the life of other species as well, specifically animals. In the
Philippines, there are millions of pet owners and this relationship affects our everyday
life. In this paper, I’m going to explain the importance of studying the impact of
pet-friendly urban design through how people rationalize the life of animals in urban
settings by becoming a pet and why it affects us as we traverse to modernization and
further advancements. The paper used to explain this hypothesis came from a chapter
of the book of Dabid Inglis (2005). This book of his talks about the culture of everyday
life that no matter how mundane our daily activities were, this affects the way of our life
and the reasons for modernization.
Historically, animals are supposed to be in the wild but along with modernization,
we learn how to communicate with animals and build relationships with them until they
became a pet to people, and people re-homed them. Like humans, animals have needs
- food, shelter, etc. - to be catered to. However, there are big differences between living
in the wild and living in an urbanized environment. Meaning, when people re-home them
they rationalize the everyday life of animals by becoming a pet and they rationalize the
space where animals live.
In order for animals and people to live harmoniously, especially in an urban area
people created a “systematic application of rules and procedures” (Inglis, 2005) to the
everyday life of animals. According to a book entitled Culture and Everyday Life (2005),
rationalization of life falls on how to think and act through a formalized rule. Living with
animals be it a dog, cat, bird, or other animals that could be a pet could affect other
people’s lives as well, especially their comfort and security. Animals, regardless of their
type, could be dangerous to people especially when there are children that are most
vulnerable and most at risk of hazards that animals may bring. To illustrate this context,
the Republic Act No. 8485 An Act To Promote Animal Welfare In The Philippines,
Otherwise Known As "The Animal Welfare Act Of 1998", section 1 states that:
“to protect and promote the welfare of all animals in the Philippines by
supervising and regulating the establishment and operations of all facilities
utilized for breeding, maintaining, keeping, treating or training of all
animals either as objects of trade or as household pets”
Therefore, anyone who wanted to own or operate that involves animals are liable
for protecting and promoting their welfare. This act creates a limitation to what humans
could and couldn’t do with animals. Though this pertains to those who wanted to be pet
owners or business owners this change the way how animals live their lives. In order to
protect the animals they own they must limit what animals could do through discipline or
even precautionary measures that would limit their activity such as putting them on a
leash, time-regulated outside visits, and more. This also applies to places or spaces
where they could and couldn’t be. There are also some countries in Europe that prohibit
people to own a pet if they don’t have the necessary requirements to be able to own
one.
Culture plus modernization change not just the physical construction of a place
but as well as the experience of the place where we live in. Inglis (2005) explains that
space pertains to where “we carry out our daily lives—workplaces, schools, shopping
centres, leisure stadia, and other such places”. He explains that the place where we live
affects the way how we live. For instance, an example given by Inglis, the production of
cars and the construction of roads changes the way how we live. Historically, people
would go to places on foot, and going to places will take a person lots of hours even
days or weeks but because of wheel invention and further development, we were able
to create vehicles that make transportation a lot easier and faster. The other one is
having a stadium, historically, there are no games or sports, rather, to conduct
competitions as a form of entertainment. Competitions are used to barter or as a form of
exchange and agreement from village to village, that’s why the first place to conduct this
is between two villages and the requirements are much simpler with no rules that make
the game much longer than now. Sports nowadays are motivated by monetary gains
and the purpose of entertainment that roots in creating a concrete, international space
for it that changes the requirements from rules to places’ designs result also in making
the game much more enjoyable in a restricted time.
The presence of animals changes the environment and the way how people live.
Before the recognition of the benefits of having animals as service animals for
psychological and physical support, most establishments don’t allow animals to enter
the premises mostly because of hygiene and health issues. However, as we enter the
21st century many establishments welcome animals because of these benefits. People
who have pets consider the place where they’re going to live because of their beloved
companion. It must be near a park for their daily walk, near a veterinarian for their
health concern, a mall that allows pets, and most importantly their home must allow pets
if they’re in an apartment or within a village.
In rural areas, you could commonly see animals wandering around though it is
also similar to urban areas such as subdivisions this doesn’t apply to more crowded
places of a metropolitan area like parks, school vicinity, public transportation, and the
like. However, through rationalization of pet-friendly spaces, animals and humans, could
exist within the same space or not, though still have limits, where they could and
couldn’t exist.
These changes in the rationalization of everyday life and of the space of animals
affect the lives of people as well as our relationships with other people and/or the
community. This may be positive or negative to both people and pets as well as the
society, especially in the context of influence on social interactions and community
bonding that “Exploring the Impact of Pet-Friendly Urban Design” aims to uncover.
Reference:
● Carmona, M., & Tiesdell, S. (2007). Urban Design Reader. Routledge.
http://www.petkovstudio.com/bg/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Urban-design-read
er-by-Matthew-Carmona-and-Steven-Tiesdell.pdf
● Cosgrove, N. (2023). 11 Philippines Pet Ownership Statistics to Know in 2023.
Pet Keen.
https://petkeen.com/pet-ownership-statistics-philippines/#1_There_are_nearly_1
2_million_dog_owners_in_the_Philippines
● Howe, L., & Easterbrook, M. J. (2018). The perceived costs and benefits of pet
ownership for homeless people in the UK: practical costs, psychological benefits
and vulnerability. Journal of Poverty,22(6), 486–499.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10875549.2018.1460741
● Inglis, D. (2005b). Culture and Everyday Life. Psychology Press.
https://www.gacbe.ac.in/images/E%20books/Culture%20and%20every%20day%
20life%20.pdf
● Johnson, R. A., Beck, A. M., & McCune, S. K. (2011). The Health Benefits of Dog
Walking for People and Pets: Evidence and Case Studies. Purdue University
Press.
http://fondation-apsommer.org/doc/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/05/425.pdf
●Republic Act No. 8485. (n.d.).
https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1998/ra_8485_1998.html#:~:text=It%20is%20the%2
0purpose%20of,trade%20or%20as%20household%20pets.
