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Today, we continue our interview with Dr. Martin Balluch, who now speaks about his book “The Dog and his Philosopher: A Call for Autonomy and Animal Rights,” which provides insights gained as he and his canine friend, Kuksi (vegan), approach life together on an equal footing. “I have been living with dogs for more than 30 years, and I know that they are actually social creatures like you and me. They simply want to get along with everyone as much as possible. But they also want to be taken seriously, respected. They also want to be heard.” “I conveyed to him how much it hurts me when he chases other animals. And he took that to heart. I never punished him, just very clearly showing my emotions, from joy and love to sadness and anger. He gave up hunting completely.”“It’s particularly emotional to experience that, and it’s very exciting to live with such a dog, such a very independent dog, because he notices when you have a problem, and then he comes to help you, very actively comforts you. When he notices you are sad, he comes over to you, puts his head here, licks you, and you can clearly feel the warmth he offers you, this emotional warmth, and it is wonderful. And this, I think, gets lost if you only dominate a dog and think you always have to decide everything for him. And last but not least, he also has the ability to develop self-confidence, this feeling of: I can solve problems.”Dr. Balluch explains the subtitle of his book: “A Call for Autonomy and Animal Rights.” “This is like with humans, where you have basic rights, which are supposed to give you this freedom. And dogs and other animals also deserve this freedom.”Dr. Balluch warns that it is crucial for us to respect our animal-people co-inhabitants to ensure the future of humanity. “We are a bit behind with dismantling these legacies of the large animal factories. And everything is going so incredibly slow. And then we are overtaken by these facts that resources are running out, our ecological footprint is much larger than it actually should be, and that we are destroying the Earth, that climate change, which is now so threatening to us, is based on the way we treat animals – mainly from animal raising. I hope that we can still turn the corner. It has to happen quickly; there is no more leeway. And we just have to listen, and we have to change that! We have to, we have to change our way!”
