Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I found how the characters in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? viewed animals to be quite interesting.  Owning an animal is very important for their social status in the book.  Some people will look down on you if you do not own an animal or let if you let your animal die.  Because of the way Earth is it is harder to find animals and that is why they are so important for social status.  Rick's neighbor Bill Barbour has a horse that he went to Canada to get, then he rode the horse all the way back to California to make sure that it wasn't stolen.  He did this all to increase his social status.  Rick on the other hand had a sheep that died.  In order to keep his social status the way it was he went out and got a replacement for his sheep, but this one was not living.  It was a perfect replica that was electronic.  It was nearly impossible for others to tell the difference between the real thing and the fake.  I find all of this very odd.  I personally would not care what others thought of me if these were the type of people to make judgments based on my animals.  If I wanted an animal I would have an animal just to have one, not so that others liked me more.  In fact I probably wouldn't be on Earth anyway, I would take my free Android and move to Mars, assuming the weather was nice.  The way animals are looked at in the book are just one of many ways people are different in their time then in ours, and I am very glad that is so.