Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Terrible Beauty.... across the world.

14 days, and a world of difference!

Take a look at the difference in our worlds? This is so darn frustrating to me, but I will attempt to remain as objective as possible through the comparison of Two Dogs, One World.... which one do they want to live in?

On January 21, 2010 Popsci.com published an article onMoscow's Stray Dogs Evolving Greater Intelligence, Including a Mastery of the Subway




In Moscow, for every 300 Muscovites, there's a stray dog wandering the streets of Russia's capital. Totally acceptable, humans and dogs learn to co-exist with one another through ways that mutually benefit one another. Some dogs may act as guards, others as scavengers, while others act as beggars amongst the human kind. This is not atypical... as a matter of fact it is exactly what goes on in India as well; and probably all other third world countries where mankind feels no less superior than the animal kind, and all play the game called SURVIVAL.

What is interesting though, is that all these dogs truly must learn to survive on their own and rely heavily on learning and their instincts. They learn to pay such attention, that they know exactly what one person amongst the thousands at the local subway will give them some food. These dogs demonstrate such high levels of intelligence (as I mentioned a few years ago from my trip to India) for example, how to maneuver around traffic by reading the wheels of a car.

Fourteen days later, MSNBC published an article on Heel. Sit. Whisper. Good dog. Inhumane or protective? Debarking surgery for noisy pups stirs debate



A problem faced by many pet owners in our Country, barking results from inadequate exercise, learned behavior for attention, demanding characteristics, frustration, lack of a job, not knowing purpose in existence or role in family etc.

Although barking is a natural behavior, it is the context in which companion dogs are raised that barking (and its other forms of anxiety, arousal, instability) has manifested to become a nuisance behavior for us.

As our lifestyles change, urban living has becomes our lifestyle. It's ease, convenience and our time constraints make urban living a great solution for us. This is the same approach that seems to be taken when tackling in-appropriate behavioral problems in dogs for example, it would be too time consuming, difficult and inconvenient to meet the dogs needs through relationship building, exercise and giving them a job in an attempt to correct barking vs removal of the dog's voice box.

I guess this would be a critical time to compare the purpose for humans wanting/having dogs? If we can manipulate, remove and change everything about a dog, what is left about a dog that we still desire to have around? Is this not selfish? Is this not inhumane? Is this not unethical? Is this not demonstrating control and superiority of man kind over all beings? Does this cause us to be disrespectful to others, lacking compassion, remorse, guilt, sensitivity...? Are these all characteristics we don't want in humans?

Spin the wheel.... will this effect evolution of humans?

It is quite interesting the roles humans play in the evolution of dogs two worlds apart. Are we creating dogs to be dumber? To exhibit lower level functioning? I think so. It is fascinating to me to see how dependant our dogs are here, and if left to having to fend for themselves, like those dogs in Haiti or those from the earthquake in Indonesia a few years ago.... our dogs would not know how to survive. This is sad.

IMHO despite the health risks dogs face as stray dogs, I think they live a better quality of life as strays than many companion dogs. As strays their needs are met, as companion dogs they struggle to ever meet our needs.

Dog Responsibly....University of Doglando

No comments: