Today I looked up Paul Dini as I came across a discussion in which he was praised for his story-telling abilities. Skimming the Wikipedia article, I read the following about his personal life:

Dini and his wife Misty Lee, a magician and voiceover actress, live in Los Angeles. Their two Boston terriers, Mugsy and Deuce, were featured in “Anger Management”, a 2012 episode of The Dog Whisperer, in which they sought Cesar Millan’s help with their dogs’ behavioral problems. Around this time, Dini began an extensive weight loss and exercise regimen which combined dog obedience training.

The personal-life section is normally about someone’s family or lack thereof. You can read about the trysts of some homosexual, the many girlfriends of an actor, or the failed marriages of some esteemed Western leader. However, the thought of mentioning someone’s animals, in contrast, is downright absurd. This is a very recent phenomenon. In the past, people surely enjoyed the company of their pets but they were not elevated to the status of replacement children. Instead, they were roughly in the same category as perhaps a home stereo (remember those?). Pets did not really get a lot of public attention nor was there a lot of interest in the pets of some well-known person. If you look back in the somewhat recent history, arguably the most well-known pet of a political leader is Hitler’s dog, which has a Wikipedia page longer than plenty of academics.

Give it a few years, and we will probably read of the multiple cats of some feminists or the pitbulls of various black civil-rights activists. You may find this whimsical, but this focus on the irrelevant is a sign of a decaying culture. Few beliefs are crazier than thinking that instead of having children you can as well just have a bunch of pets. What we see here is not new, however. Even Julius Caesar was appalled by similar behavior. Here is an anecdote that was written down by Plutarch:

Caesar once, seeing some wealthy strangers at Rome, carrying up and down with them in their arms and bosoms young puppy-dogs and monkeys, embracing and making much of them, took occasion not unnaturally to ask whether the women in their country were not used to bear children; by that prince-like reprimand gravely reflecting upon persons who spend and lavish upon brute beasts that affection and kindness which nature has implanted in us to be bestowed on those of our own kind. With like reason may we blame those who misuse that love of inquiry and observation which nature has implanted in our souls, by expending it on objects unworthy of the attention either of their eyes or their ears, while they disregard such as are excellent in themselves, and would do them good.

Rome was sacked, and not just once but seven times. Not every single time the problem was that people forgot what they had been put on this planet for. Yet, the contrast to modernity is quite obvious. Modern society likewise has forgotten, or was made to forget, what we are here for. Instead of women nurturing children, they chase after alleged careers until they become barren, at which point their affection turns to pets. This is disastrous for them as well as for society.