Tails: From wolf to slave

It’s obvious that this whole media scam has me in a tizzy. Me and many other people. And ironically enough, my dad just sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal titled, “From Cave to Kennel” the evolution of the dog by Mark Derr.

It talks about how they have found cave drawings estimated to be 26,000 years old with a young boy walking with his dog companion next to him. This would push back what was thought to be the oldest record of dogs by 12,000 years.

The writer speaks to the relationship between man and dog and states, “We chose them, to be sure, but they chose us too and our shared characteristics may well account for our seemingly unshakable mutual intimacy.”

He goes on to explain: “The relationship between dogs and humans has been so mutually beneficial and enduring that some scholars have suggested that we-dogs and humans-influenced each other’s evolution.”

Let’s assume that to be true. I certainly believe it is. But what does that infer in our debate about puppy mills? Could it be that our evolution as humans has come to a halt? Does it mean that we have stopped moving forward when our belief becomes we should cage dogs and use them up like expendable objects?

It seems to me that up until the last few decades us and dogs moved ahead. Humans got smarter, dogs got smarter and we thrived on this Earth as a partnership. But, now, it seems both of us have gotten dumber and less productive and more cruel and lost our compassion for life.

Derr states, “Highly social wolves and highly social humans started walking, playing and hunting together and never stopped.”

That is, until today, when we have chosen to lock them up in barns and throw away the key.

Derr continues with: “Recent studies suggest that the dog has unique abilities among animals to follow human directions and that its capacity for understanding words can approach that of a two year old child.”

Do we lock up two-year-old children in crates?

Derr ends his piece like this: “The relationship (between human and dog) has endured not because dogs are juvenilized wolves but because they are dogs-our faithful companions.”

Faithful companions that we neglect and torture and if that wasn’t bad enough we tell ourselves that we don’t.