Very often, when I listen to the stories people tell about their dog and others’ dogs, I all too often feel they are also talking about themselves and other humans. I have no proof of this possible relationship, so I was especially pleased to learn of Dr. Katharine Mershon’s new book, Dogs Save: Stories of Canine Redemption in US Culture.
In her highly acclaimed book, Mershon critically examines stories of mutual rescue by analyzing “seemingly heartwarming stories of mutual rescue [that] revolve around redemption through suffering.” Ultimately, she melds religious studies and animal studies and shows that redemption narratives―what she calls “canine redemption narratives”―shape who survives and thrives. Here’s what she told me about her seminal work on human-dog relationships, rethinking rescue and who’s rescuing whom—what some call mutual rescue.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Dogs Save?
Katharine Mershon: The idea for Dogs Save came to me from my experiences working with dogs and the people who love them. For many years, I was a volunteer at a large city shelter, where I spent my time walking dogs and working with them on basic training. One day, I was walking a dog in the yard when I heard an announcement come over the loudspeaker, asking for a shelter employee to come to the front desk for a “dog redemption.”
Redemption is a standard term used in animal shelters, referring to the process where a person comes in to claim their lost dog. Before the dog is returned, the person must provide proof of ownership and pay a fine to cover the animal’s care at the shelter. The religious studies scholar in me was struck by that term “redemption” and realized that more was going on there. I started thinking about how that redeemed dog went from facing possible euthanasia to being “reborn” into her family, and how that family was made complete by the return of the dog. We save dogs, and dogs save us, as the saying goes. In that moment, I realized that stories about dog rescue in the United States are also stories about religion. And so, my book started with my questions about the role religion plays in relationships between people and dogs, as well as the way that dogs are represented in U.S. culture more broadly.
MB: How does your book relate to your background and general areas of interest?
KM: I’m a lifelong animal lover, and my life was forever changed when I adopted a pit bull-type dog named Zoe. I also study representations of religion in U.S. literature, film, TV, and popular media. (Any dog person on social media can tell you that their Instagram feeds are saturated with stories about people and dogs saving each other). The tools of religious studies are useful because they provide us a way to understand why these stories are so popular, as well as offer ethical modes of living with and loving dogs.
