How do we increase their life span? Is it possible?
I would be surprised if dogs and cats lived to 15-20 years at the time humans were dying in their 20s and 30s.
It's still common for people to die in their 20's. But it's been tens of thousands, or maybe hundreds of thousands of years since people's average lifespan was in the 20's.
@"it was common for people to die very young, in their 20's."
Sorry Sharonna, but that is not correct and never was.
What was common was for babies to die shortly after being born. and that was very common. So common it brought the average lifespan down to something like 27 years. But is was never "common to die in their 20es", A lot of people lived longer, into their 60es of 70es. And a bigger lot lived much shorter, so short they never got to see a single birthday cake.
It have changed now, but not because people have changed in some way. It is about hygiene, nutrition, and all the nurses that visit people with a baby and give them good advice (about hygiene and nutrition).
3 score and 10 is the Natural lifespan of humans. for cats and dogs it is much less. We would need a lot of genetic enginering to make them live as long as we do. You could take an elephant for a pet, The have about the same natural lifespan as we do. But be warned, they eat a lot and are hard to housebreak.
Well, that is an excellent point, Char. One of their years is like 7 of ours. So, that is a very good point to consider. Thanks.
Where do you get your information? We are both off the mark, it seems.
| If a child survived to age 10, life expectancy was an additional 37.5 years, (total age 47.5 years).[17] | ||
| Pre-Columbian North America[18] | 25–30 | |
| Medieval Islamic Caliphate[19] | 35+ | Average lifespan of scholars was 59–84.3 years in the Middle East[20][21] and 69–75 in Islamic Spain.[22] |
| Late medieval English peerage[23][24] | 30 | At age 21, life expectancy was an additional 43 years (total age 64).[25] |
| Early Modern England[14] | 33–40 | |
| 1900 world average[26] | 31 | |
| 1950 world average[26] | 48 | |
| 2010 world average[27] | 67.2 |
Life expectancy increases with age as the individual survives the higher mortality rates associated with childhood. For instance, the table above listed the life expectancy at birth among 13th-century English nobles at 30. Having survived until the age of 21, a male member of the English aristocracy in this period could expect to live:[25]
17th-century English life expectancy was only about 35 years, largely because infant and child mortality remained high. Life expectancy was under 25 years in the early Colony of Virginia,[28] and in seventeenth-century New England, about 40 per cent died before reaching adulthood.[29] During the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically.[30] The under-5 mortality rate in London decreased from 745 in 1730–1749 to 318 in 1810–1829.[31][32]
Public health measures are credited with much of the recent increase in life expectancy. During the 20th century, despite a brief drop due to the 1918 flu pandemic[33] starting around that time the average lifespan in the United States increased by more than 30 years, of which 25 years can be attributed to advances in public health.[34]
>80
77.5-80
75-77.5
72.5-75
70-72.5
67.5-70
65-67.5
|
60-65
55-60
50-55
45-50
40-45
<40
|
There are great variations in life expectancy between different parts of the world, mostly caused by differences in public health, medical care, and diet. The impact of AIDS on life expectancy is particularly notable in many African countries. According to projections made by the United Nations (UN) in 2002, the life expectancy at birth for 2010–2015 (if HIV/AIDS did not exist) would have been:[36]
Jakob
You right. Me off the mark.
Thanks. See what I posted above you. It really is determined more often than not by circumstances. 
It has already been done with dogs and cats. The earliest I remember any mention of dog life expectancy, it was 10 years, and people used the simple multiple of 7 for dog to human years since humans lived 70 years. Now 13 or even 16 years is considered a reasonable life expectancy, especially for smaller breeds, and a similar life expectancy for cats if they stay out of outdoor accidents.
Let's hope so.
try it and see what happens
