BOOK REVIEW

Reviewed By Brianna Lex

PET NATION By Mark L. Cushing • Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

to a the of leaving your home with your dog to run errands didn’t cross your or yet enough to remember when the thought of letting Fido on the furniture, let alone sleep in bed with you sounded crazy, then you may have wondered just how Americans got to this place. This place where choosing where to go for brunch is based on whether or not the restaurant has an outdoor patio that welcomes dogs. Or, letting your guests know that “Sorry, you can’t sit there, that’s Bailey’s spot” is met with complete unwavering understanding. Pets, as you may have come to find out since reading countless issues of THE WAG magazine, have become pure royalty in America. Have you noticed?

You may have asked yourself, “Just how did this come about?”

Enter Pet Nation by Mark Cushing. Founding partner and CEO of the Animal Policy Group and a Stanford honors graduate, Cushing has researched and brought together pertinent, up-todate, and usually surprising data about the love affair with animals that swept across the country, primarily in the last two decades. With chapter headings including “The Secret to Pet Nation: The Human-Animal Bond,” “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Legal and Political Fights Are Just Beginning,” and “Pet Health Care Will Never Be the Same Again,” Pet Nation is truthful, insightful, witty, and just as much educational as it is joyful to read (may I suggest dog snuggles at the same time?). Written just in time to include anecdotal evidence of how the Covid-19 pandemic is continuing to change and expand pet ownership. The most surprising chapter, “Dog Shortages and Canine Freedom Trains,” will offer a new scope through which one views the ever-expanding conversation surrounding the ways Americans acquire their new fur-ever friends. The dog shortage, though not imminent, needs to be addressed soon, according to Cushing. Or else, “dogs will become a luxury item.” Backed by grounded research and figures, the reader need not fret about how to feel towards any of the thought-provoking information shared in the book. Cushing has worked for years on pet advocacy at all levels and offers many solutions for making life better for animals and the humans with whom they share their lives.

Pet Nation is a story about what changed within us that allowed pets to climb to the top of the social ladder. As Cushing puts it, “Pets aren’t a fad. They are more like the medicine America needs now for individuals and communities to feel better, and to do better.” The book honors not only the human-animal connection but also the altruism every pet owner knows to be true about them. Pet Nation is still young and there is much left to be done, but with the help of advocates like Cushing on the scene, we are sure to see success for all pets and people and their relationships with the rest of the communities around them.