Pets in the digital age

Over half the people in Western societies share their daily life with pets, which makes it the norm rather than the exception. Our shared history with domestic animals goes back tens of thousands years. However, technological advances in the last decades – computer, internet, social media – revolutionized our means of communication, and particularly our social lives. However, we are possibly witnessing the dawn of a new era, the digital revolution with likely effects on pet ownership, similar to the industrial revolution which replaced animal power for petrol and electrical engines. The last option is most intriguing, that technologies could allow us to replace animal use. There are already alternatives to the use of animals in research, with in vitro or computer models, considers Jean-Loup Rault, scientists from Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, University of Melbourne.

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