Who let the dogs in?

How did pets evolve from independent, working animals to cherished family members, and what does a 100% human-managed life mean for their health and well-being? In this article, we’ll be tracing their journey from helpers to furry family.

Do you have a pet dog at home? When was the last time your dog helped you hunt a fowl or a fox, marched beside you into battle, or carried you across snowy landscapes on a sled? Most probably, never.

For most of human history, dogs, and pets in general, were valued primarily for what they did, not simply for who they were. The transformation of pets from useful companions into deeply loved family members is relatively recent. Interestingly, this shift is also connected to a growing set of health challenges seen in modern pets, which we’ll explore later.

Today, many kinds of animals live in human homes, but dogs and cats remain the most common companions.

This audio article is part of The Biosolutions Bulletin. For the text version of this article and to get The Biosolutions Bulletin delivered monthly directly to your inbox, please go to: https://www.novonesis.com/en/biosolutions-bulletin

Transcript

How did pets evolve from independent, working animals to cherished family members, and what does a 100% human-managed life mean for their health and well-being? In this episode of the Biosolutions Bulletin by Novonesis, we’ll be tracing their journey from helpers to furry family, while the role of modern biosolutions in supporting their health and daily lives will be explored in article 2. 

Do you have a pet dog at home? When was the last time your dog helped you hunt a fowl or a fox, marched beside you into battle, or carried you across snowy landscapes on a sled? Most probably, never. 

For most of human history, dogs, and pets in general, were valued primarily for what they did, not simply for who they were. The transformation of pets from useful companions into deeply loved family members is relatively recent. Interestingly, this shift is also connected to a growing set of health challenges seen in modern pets, which we’ll explore later. 

Today, many kinds of animals live in human homes, but dogs and cats remain the most common companions. Dogs were among the first mammals to be domesticated by humans, with the process beginning roughly 33,000 years ago. Over time, the bond between humans and dogs grew stronger and more complex. 

Cats joined human society later than dogs. Their domestication likely began around 10,000 years ago, when early agricultural communities benefited from their ability to control rodent populations. Despite this relatively later arrival, cats quickly captured the human imagination, from their sacred status in ancient Egyptian culture to their viral fame in the digital age. Today, while dogs dominate pet ownership in the United States³, cats outnumber dogs in Europe. 

Although humans and companion animals have shared bonds for thousands of years, pets did not fully enter human domestic life until much more recently. A major turning point came in the nineteenth century. The earliest modern animal welfare law, the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act of 1822 in the United Kingdom, initially protected livestock from cruelty. Just over a decade later, in 1835, the law was expanded to include other domestic animals, including dogs and cats. 

Care required by law  
This period, the Victorian era, marked a cultural shift in attitudes toward pet dogs. Dogs increasingly began to be welcomed into family life rather than treated solely as working animals. Around the same time, in 1860, one of the world’s first animal rescue shelters, the Temporary Home for Lost and Starving Dogs, was established in London. It is now known as the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, and is regarded as the longest-running single-site pet shelter⁶. 

Legal expectations of pet care continued to evolve. Only in the latter half of the twentieth century, and especially in the twenty-first century, did laws begin requiring proactive responsibility from pet owners. These responsibilities included providing appropriate nutrition, exercise, healthcare, and living environments. These changing laws reflected something deeper: a transformation in how people viewed animals themselves. Pets were no longer seen merely as animals that lived alongside humans. They became beings that lived with humans. They moved indoors. They became emotionally significant. They became part of the household. 

Today, many people see their pets not simply as animals, but as members of the family, sometimes even as children. The language reflects this shift. Pet owners increasingly describe themselves as “pet parents.” 

This transformation, treating pets as family members with emotional, social, and psychological significance, is known as pet humanization. 

The Rise in Pet Humanization 

You might not have heard the term before, but in academic circles, pet humanization is widely known. The concept has gained increasing attention over the past decade as researchers try to understand the effects of humans treating their pets like family members. This is because pet humanization does not stop at simply considering your pet a member of the family. It influences how you treat your pet, the importance you attach to their health, and even how you interpret their emotional needs. 

Let’s look at a simple example. If you have a pet at home, you probably follow certain routines. You take your dog for a walk at a fixed time. You spend a few minutes petting your cat when you return from work. Now imagine one day you come home much later than usual. Your dog greets you excitedly, wagging its tail, or your cat rubs itself against your feet, seeking attention. 

Almost immediately, you feel a sense of guilt. You feel that you made them wait. You feel that you disrupted their routine. And what do most people do at that moment? They try to make up for it. Perhaps you give them treats. Perhaps you spend extra time with them. You respond in the same way you might respond if you felt you had inconvenienced a human that you care about — a child, partner, parent, or friend. 

That emotional response is pet humanization in action. You interpret your pet’s experience through a human emotional lens and respond accordingly. 

This is just one example. There are many other ways in which pets are humanized — dressing them up in clothes, making them wear footwear on walks, carrying them in strollers, or imposing on them the same dietary preferences and restrictions that we follow ourselves. To many people, this feels completely natural, and today, it is not unusual for pets to share furniture with their owners. Many sleep inside bedrooms. Some even share the same bed. What began as a rare practice has slowly become an everyday norm. Yet the extent to which humans now heavily influence the daily lives, behaviors, and health of their pets may go unnoticed. 

The Managed Lives of Pets 

For most of history, pets were not completely dependent on their owners. They had some autonomy, spent a lot of time outdoors and were not fed food at home, thus impacting food consumption, nutritional availability, hygiene, activity levels, and even exposure to microbes like bacteria and fungi in soil and water. For pets, life was unpredictable for the most part. Dogs, for example, often foraged or spent long periods outside, interacting with their environment and other animals. This independence affected their daily routines, health, and exposure to natural microbial communities. 

However, modern pets live very differently. Their lives are heavily regulated by humans. They always receive food (and even treats), their activity levels often depends on the routine of their humans, living spaces are temperature-controlled, outdoor exposure is limited and supervised, social interactions with other animals are structured, and even daily tasks, such as when to wake, rest, or play, are influenced by household schedules (this holds more truth in case of dogs, as some cat owners allow them to freely roam outside). 

When humans shape how pets eat, move, rest, and live, they also influence how their bodies function. That influence can affect health in both positive and negative ways. 

On the one hand, pets benefit from better care, protection from disease, fewer aggressive encounters, and longer lifespans. On the other hand, highly managed lifestyles can also contribute to serious health challenges and a decline in overall well-being. 

Let us now take a look at what kinds of health challenges are emerging in modern pets, and how they have changed over time. 

Health Challenges of Living the Good Pet Life 

One of the paradoxes of modern living is that the same comforts and protections that improve survival can also introduce new health challenges. Among humans, one of the most visible consequences of highly regulated, sedentary (inactive) lifestyles is obesity and its associated health risks, including heart diseases and diabetes. Veterinary organizations around the world are increasingly recognizing obesity as a major health concern in pets. 

In 2018, the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention released the Global Pet Obesity Initiative Position Statement, formally classifying pet obesity as a disease and introducing standardized body condition scoring. The statement was supported by 25 of the world’s largest veterinary medical organizations. Even though obesity in pets may feel like a very recent concern, veterinarians were already raising alarms decades ago, at a time when pets were far less integrated into everyday family life than they are today. 

As early as the mid-20th century, researchers were documenting that overweight dogs were becoming more common, particularly in urban households. One publication from 1970 noted that obesity in pet dogs was not a new phenomenon, and described it as closely linked to modern living, especially in animals kept as household companions rather than working dogs. It identified several associated factors, including pets living in smaller spaces, with abundant food and limited opportunities for exercise. 

What is striking is how familiar this sounds today. Large-scale veterinary studies now show that excess body weight is common across much of the adult life of pets. For example, in the United States, recent estimates suggest that roughly 59 percent of pet dogs and 61 percent of pet cats are now overweight or obese — a scale that has led many veterinarians to describe excess weight as one of the most significant health and welfare challenges facing companion animals today. Perhaps even more concerning is that animals who gain excess weight early in life tend to carry it with them into adulthood. 

And importantly, this is not limited to one species. Similar patterns are being reported across dogs, cats, and even horses, indicating how living alongside humans impacts animals generally. 

Obesity is one of the most visible and measurable outcomes of modern living, but it is not the only way changing lifestyles affect pet health. Research shows that obesity in pets is associated with a wide range of health problems like orthopedic issues, diabetes, urinary problems, and a higher risk of decreased longevit. 

This is where the challenge becomes clear. Modern pets are not returning to the lifestyles of their ancestors. They are not going back to roaming landscapes, hunting for food, or regulating their own activity patterns. They live with us, share our homes, and follow routines shaped by human life. 

So the question is no longer whether modern living affects pet health. The question is how we support their well-being within the lives they now live. And that brings us to the final part of this journey — nutritional food for a healthy living. 

Fun Facts

1. Dog noses are basically built-in ID cards: The pattern of ridges and tiny contours on a dog’s nose — called the nose-print — is completely unique to each individual, just like human fingerprints. In fact, there are even digital recognition systems that can identify dogs based on nose-print patterns. 

2. Copy cat in real life: In 2004, a woman in Texas paid $50,000 to have her beloved cat cloned. The cat, named Little Nicky, is widely considered the world’s first commercially cloned pet. 

3. Yawning is contagious, even across species: Humans do not just “catch” yawns from other people; we can also start yawning after seeing animals yawn. In one study, about 69 percent of participants yawned after being exposed to yawning images of animals ranging from fish to pets like cats and dogs. 

Food That Supports Managed Indoor Lives of Pets 

In modern times, as we hold an ever firmer grip over how our pets live, two factors remain most clearly in our hands: activity and nutrition. 

Regular movement helps maintain balance in the body, supports mobility, and keeps energy systems working as they should. But the food we feed them plays an equally important, if not more, constant and intimate role. Feeding pets today is more than just preventing hunger. It is also about supporting bodies that live in carefully managed environments and routines. 

In many ways, modern pet nutrition has begun to resemble modern human nutrition. The focus is shifting from simply providing sustenance to supporting overall health, resilience, and daily comfort. This shift has led scientists and pet food manufacturers to look more closely at how food functions inside the body. 

One approach gaining increasing attention is the inclusion of beneficial microbes, commonly known as probiotics, in pet food. These microbes can help support digestive balance and contribute to overall well-being. 

However, incorporating living microbes into food presents its own challenges. They must survive manufacturing, remain stable during storage, and still be active when the pet finally eats the meal. At the same time, the food itself must remain appealing. Even the most carefully formulated diet cannot support health if the animal refuses to eat it. 

This is where advances in biosolutions are beginning to reshape what is possible. Biosolutions are helping pet food producers incorporate beneficial bacteria that remain stable throughout a product’s shelf life. At the same time, specialized enzymes are being used to improve how food is experienced — enhancing taste, texture, and digestibility so that pets eat willingly and consistently. 

Supporting pet health today means more than providing comfort and companionship. It means providing nourishment that truly supports the way they live, and how biosolutions make this possible is a story worth exploring in its own right – read on in article 2.