Editing Pet (section)

==== Social ====
Pets and animals also had social and cultural implications throughout the nineteenth century. The categorization of dogs by their breeds reflected the hierarchical, social order of the Victorian era. The [[pedigree (dog)|pedigree]] of a dog represented the high status and lineage of their owners and reinforced social stratification.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Beastly Possession: Animals in Victorian Consumer Culture|last=Amato|first=Sarah|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2015|location=Toronto|page=55}}</ref> Middle-class owners valued the ability to associate with the upper-class through ownership of their pets. The ability to care for a pet signified respectability and the capability to be self-sufficient.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Beastly Possession: Animals in Victorian Consumer Culture|last=Amato|first=Sarah|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2015|location=Toronto|page=10}}</ref> According to Harriet Ritvo, the identification of "elite animal and elite owner was not a confirmation of the owner's status but a way of redefining it."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Era|last=Ritvo|first=Harriet|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1987|location=Cambridge|page=104}}</ref>