Jeremy Siegel: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. Pet ownership is surging in the U.S. it has been for the past three decades. A study from Forbes finds that 66% of households own pets, and many owners consider them a part of their family. But is your pet actually a prisoner? That is the question boldly printed on the cover of the latest issue of New York Magazine, with a series of stories exploring the ethical dilemmas of living with a pet. Here to talk more about them is Dr. Terri Bright, a clinical behaviorist at Angell Animal Medical Center. Good morning, Dr. Bright.

Dr. Terri Bright: Good morning, Jeremy.

Siegel: So first, let’s get into that big question. Are our pets technically prisoners in our homes?

Bright: Well, certainly we think of them as our family members. So if you use a 2- or 3-year-old child as a metaphor for your pet, how much are you ruining their life by making them hold your hand when you cross the street? Or by not letting them play with knives? So I would say that our pets are our family members, and it’s our job to keep them safe and give them a good and healthy life.

Siegel: But what about this question of: Pets are animals. That they don’t exactly want to conform to our perfect little indoor human lives? That we’re keeping animals inside of tiny apartments, we’re putting leashes on them when they’re in the great outdoors. Is there something to be said that they could have a more healthy animal life if it weren’t for us?

Bright: If you asked my 6-year-old dog if she could just run loose in the neighborhood, she would love that. But she wouldn’t last very long. She doesn’t know how to feed herself. She probably doesn’t know how to get home. But she’s my responsibility, and I took that on. And so for our pets, they’re never going to be like an animal living in the wild. They’re domesticated, meaning that they can’t live on their own successfully.

Siegel: For someone who may be worried that their pet is not living an enriching or stimulating life at home, what are some ways that we can improve the quality of life for, say, cats and dogs in our apartments or houses?

Bright: So one of the first things you can do for your cat or dog is stop feeding them from a bowl. So you can feed your cat out of — feed their kibble in an egg carton where they have to spoon out the kibble up into their mouth and toss that all around.

You can make a food toy for your dog by taking a medium sized Kong and a half of a Stella and Chewy’s dinner patty, squeezing that Kong, stuffing that dinner patty in — it’s a favorite thing for your dog. It will take them 30 to 45 minutes to clean it out, and that way your cat or your dog are using their senses to hunt and get food.

Siegel: What about people who have a small apartment, who are living in tight quarters? How can they use this space effectively to not make a pet feel cramped? If you have a cat that you can’t take outside at all, but you have a tiny little apartment, what can you do?

Bright: Well, you can set up extra footage for them. So you can put extra shelves up — they have cat shelves you can Google on the internet. There’s lots of architectural kind of low-budget things to do for cats to make their house more seem bigger to them.

Siegel: This is a weird question, but it sort of cuts at the core of the question of whether pets are prisoners. How much do we know about what our cats and dogs are thinking about their living situations? Like, can we say for sure that they’re not looking at us, thinking that we’re their captors and that they’re our captives?

Bright: You never know what another organism is thinking — unless they can tell you, and they can’t tell you. But we can watch their behavior and study how their behavior changes in an environment. So if your cat is staring at you intently and you get up and go in the kitchen and give them some food, then their staring probably elicited your food-giving behavior. If your dog barks at you in a demanding way, and you get the leash on them and take them for a walk, they have now shown you what they wanted and maybe what they’re thinking. So behavior is their greatest indication, as far as we can tell, as to what they’re thinking.

Siegel: Dr. Terri Bright of the Angell Animal Medical Center, thank you so much for your time this morning.

Bright: My pleasure.

Siegel: You're listening to GBH News.

Americans love their pets. According to a study from Forbes, 66% of households in the United States own pets, and many consider them part of the family.

The latest issue of New York Magazine asks a bold question: Is your pet actually a prisoner?

Dr. Terri Bright, a clinical behaviorist at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, said we can think of our pet more as a young child that we care for.

“Our pets are our family members, and it’s our job to keep them safe and give them a good and healthy life,” Bright told GBH Morning Edition’s co-host Jeremy Siegel.

But what about the people who say we are making pets conform to our human lives, keeping them in small apartments and putting them on leashes outside?

Bright said that while many animals love to have freedom, her own 6-year-old dog, for example, wouldn’t last very long on her own.

“She doesn’t know how to feed herself. She probably doesn’t know how to get home. But she’s my responsibility. And I took that on,” Bright said. “And so for our pets, they’re never going to be like an animal living in the wild. They’re domesticated, meaning that they can’t live on their own successfully.”

Bright shared some tips for pet owners who want to improve the quality of life for their cats or dogs in houses. One idea is not feeding them from a bowl: You can give cats their kibble in an egg carton, or make a food toy for your dog by putting food in a KONG.

“That way your cat or your dog are using their senses to hunt and get food,” she said.

For pet owners with small homes, Bright said you can get creative by setting up extra shelves to create more space for a cat to explore.

“There’s lots of architectural kind of low-budget things to do for cats to make their house seem bigger to them,” she said.

For anyone still wondering what their pet is really thinking, Bright suggested watching their behavior. If your cat stares at you and then you give them food, they were probably thinking about being hungry. If your dog barks and then you take them on a walk, that’s probably what they were thinking about.

“Behavior is their greatest indication, as far as we can tell as to what they’re thinking.”