The Importance Of Nonconsensual Silence

Nonconsensual Silence Humans often try to exert their control over companion animals through changes like physical refinement to their liking. One of the main physical traits that people try to alter on a dog is vocalization because they do not want their dog to irritate them with their constant barking. Many owners would request procedures to devocalize their dogs such as laryngeal paralysis that remove vocal fold masses. Often, this would hurt the dogs physically and emotionally. Humans should not be devocalizing their dogs through surgery, or with any alternative methods, because it restricts their way of communicating with other dogs and humans, and causes countless health issues. Vocalization is an important factor of how dogs communicate …show more content…
Barking is a normal dog behavior, without it they tend to lose interaction and relationships among other dogs. (Sarangom 2013) Even after the procedure there are no guarantee if the owners would keep the devocalized dog, and often those dogs become strays. Without their ability to vocalize, these newly stray dogs are not able to communicate with other dogs when they are in need of help. They often start to lose the ability to interact with other dogs and would not be able to form bonds with others. Throughout the course of history humans favor dogs that help make their lives easier such as warning and signaling them when someone is intruding their property. (Grossman 2013) Dogs are evolved from wolves that are much quieter, but since domestication started humans picked the more vocalized dogs due to their ability to bark and alarm them when emergencies happen. Humans were the reason why dogs were manipulated for their vocalization, but now since quieter dogs are more valued they would choose to devocalize their dogs and not think about the consequences that follow it. People devocalize their pets due to noise pollution and the annoyance …show more content…
One of form of punishment to inhibit barking behavior is using electric shock collars (Sarangom 2013) These collars are controlled by humans and, when the dogs would bark, they would control the collar and cause it to shock the dogs, and this is to punish them and to stop them from more barking. People do not understand that electric shock is very harmful and cause pain to dogs. According to Sarangmom relinquishment and euthanasia are two convenient alternatives when devocalizing and training has failed. Relinquishment is when the owner gives away their dog, which often leads to them becoming strays. So stray dogs are not able to communicate with other animals due to their previous owner devocalizing them and they are not able to form bonds with others. Euthanasia is when the owner lets their dog die painlessly through drugs and gases that slows down their breathing and systems. It is unfair though that these dogs have to be put down due to natural behavior, and they do not have the choice or voice to tell their owner. They think relinquishment and euthanasia is the final decision because other methods such as training and devocalizing operations do not work and their barking dogs still pester