Mutts and Purebreds

Our treatment of animals doesn’t reveal so much about what they are, as who we are.

This is especially true for dogs.

On one hand, dogs purportedly are “mans’ best friend.”  Yet, the appellation “dog” is often used as an insult hurled at those deemed to be less than human.  “He’s a dog,” or “She’s a dog” — we know exactly what’s meant by these derisive expressions, don’t we?

So, which is it?  Are dogs our most adored companions, or the typification of filth?

Well, they’re both.  And precisely which side of the fence of human perception any particular dog falls into has virtually nothing to do with them.  After all, canine DNA is basically the same from animal to animal.  Rather, what makes us value one dog more than another are the twisted peculiarities of selective breeding, which are used to accentuate and exaggerate physical characteristics and behavioral traits.

These common breeding practices have turned some dog varieties into freaks.  We’ve drifted so far away from the process of natural selection, that some breed-types are no longer able to breathe normally, or see well, or have trouble walking — all because of the specific characteristics we desire in some of our pets.  This is a disgrace.  It’s nothing to be proud of.  It’s nothing to celebrate.

Indeed, we’ve collectively reached a new low, and it’s reflected in how we treat and look upon dogs.  We discriminate based on a common vanity one might associate with Marie Antionette, rather than a shared virtue of true “animal lovers.”  This utter shallowness ultimately ends up determining which dogs live versus which dogs die.  We afford royal treatment to the lucky few that are chosen, while the far less fortunate are rounded up and euthanized by the millions.

Dogs have been in the news a lot lately.

The Westminster Kennel Club held its big show at Madison Square Garden recently.  Dogs have been “competing” in this annual event for more than 130 years.  I find it interesting that these dogs are never judged based on their intelligence, bravery, their loyalty, or any of the other natural attributes that make most dogs so lovable.  Instead, they’re judged purely upon their appearance.  That’s it.  It’s nothing but a beauty contest.  Only, the traits determining winners from losers aren’t just shiny coats and pretty eyes.  They’re the twisted, freakish anomalies that have been created by multiple generations of selective breeding.  The winner ends up being the best Frankenstein.

Over in Sochi, the site of the Winter Olympic Games, dogs have made some very different headlines.  Before the games started, local officials tried desperately to remove all the homeless dogs from the streets.  They figured images of stray dogs running all over the place would bother a lot of visitors and look really bad.  So, thousands of stray mutts were rounded up and put to death.  The terrible irony of this tragedy is that many of these dogs were initially brought to Sochi and were used to provide security during the eight-year-long construction phase.  However, once the buildings and arenas were completed, these dogs were turned loose and began interbreeding.  For some, there’s a happy ending to their story, since a small number of dogs are now getting rescued.  It seems that once the world’s press found out about the mass killing of dogs and visiting athletes began interacting with the friendly canines throughout the village, interest in adoptions soared.  Some Sochi dogs are going to be saved and will end up finding homes for the first time.

Here in Las Vegas, dogs were also in the news, not so much for what they did, but for what their cruel owner attempted to do to them.  A despicable woman tried to set her pet shop on fire in order to collect insurance money.  Nearly 30 small dogs, all trapped in cramped cages, would have been burned alive had the arsonist she hired not been so incompetent.  Fortunately, the woman was caught, charged with a crime, and will hopefully be spending many years locked away in prison.

Think of the role of innocent dogs in each of these three stories, which goes beyond anything they can control.  In the Westminster Kennel Club story, dogs were judged based solely on breeding and appearances.  Inexplicably, we value these purebred dogs the most.  In the Sochi story, dogs that initially served a useful purpose (security) became expendable and eventually came to be viewed as pests.  It took the world’s outrage to reverse local policy which had been rounding up and killing the strays.  Finally, in the Las Vegas story, dogs were just a few minutes away from certain death, which likely would have triggered an outpouring of sympathy for the woman had she gotten away with her crime.  Imagine the woman crying on the evening news about her pet shop going up in flames and all the dogs being killed.  In this case, dogs were pawns in a vicious crime that fortunately did not succeed.

I’d like to think our treatment of animals, including dogs, is constantly improving.  Perhaps conditions overall for our furry friends are better now given the harsh and inhumane way many of these creatures were treated centuries ago.  I’d like to believe we’re making progress and things are more humane.  Then again, anyone who is familiar with the process of modern food production might have a hard time buying this argument.  Purely on a scale of gross inhumanity and mass killing, it’s probably worse now than ever, and will only deteriorate given the world’s growing population and scarcity of resources.

That said, we like to think of dogs as the exception.  A symbol of man’s inherent kindness.  But are they really?  I do wonder if a society that values pure breeds far greater than mutts can really ever be considered humane.

Here’s an unusual thought:  What if we applied the same standards we use for dogs to ourselves?  What if we looked upon humans in the same way we perceive dogs?  What would that mean?

In this case, the United States of America would be the Heinz-57 of nations.  We’re the world’s largest dog pound of different colors and ethnicities.  We’re half this, and a quarter that.  Some of us don’t even know what we are.  Judged as dog life, most of us Americans would be out wandering the streets in places like Sochi — homeless, starving, unloved, and unwanted.  We’re mutts.

By contrast, which nation on earth would win all the awards at a “People’s Version” of the Westminster Kennel Club?  Which nation has the most homogenous population on earth due to virtually no infusion of foreign influence?  What country has the purest gene pool?  Chew on this bone if you can digest it — the People’s Republic of North Korea.  There’s your blue ribbon winner if we judged humans as dogs.

So, something’s very wrong here.  Either we’ve got to start looking at dogs differently, or think of ourselves in different ways.

Probably both.

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