A lot has happened this week. New York had its Presidential Primary. The legendary artist Prince died. But everyone is talking about this, which means everyone is posting and writing about this. And that could mean a lot of people may pay attention to it, but that’s not really what I’m looking to write about, and I feel like it would be overrated, you know? I am the kind of person who doesn’t really like doing things just because everyone is doing it. I still haven’t listened to Adele’s new album. I refuse to use twitter and never promote my stupid twitter account. I don’t really drink and party as much in my college environment. So, I just didn’t want to write about something that everyone would know about.
Anyway, so as I was trolling for a current events topic, I found these two articles published by The New York Times about stray dogs. They were both kind of a narrative on these dogs and talked about how we can learn so much more from dogs that aren’t domesticated. Apparently, there are about a billion dogs on Earth. A billion. That sounds crazy to me, but also not surprising. 750 million of those billion dogs are actually strays and don’t really belong to anyone. They are called, “village dogs, street dogs, free-breeding dogs among other things.”
Raymond and Lorna Coppinger wrote a book called What is A Dog? They argue that if we want to understand their true nature, we need to learn about these dogs that don’t belong to anyone. The Coppingers call the majority of those strays, “superbly adapted scavengers.” They have been studying dogs for years and have kept dogs as pets for many years as well. The article talks about how the Coppingers discuss that dogs have varied connections to human beings. Some live on their own at garbage dumps. Some are neighborhood dogs, “recognized and perhaps given handouts by people who live in a certain area.” This reminds me of the Tramp character from the Disney movie Lady and The Tramp. Other dogs feed and breed on their own, but spend nights at people’s homes. Sometimes the dogs adopt people, as Dr. Coppinger says.
Although we, the humans, may judge these stray dogs for running around unvaccinated, they are living in their own “rich social, environment.” By taking these dogs away from the streets, and then domesticating them, we are taking these dogs away from their comfort zone to “lives of relative isolation.” The Coppingers say that if society wants fewer dogs in the street, the best way to do that is to take away the thing they need the most – garbage.
This article reminded me of the pet dog, Durango, my family had for twelve years, before he passed away when I was seventeen. My dad adopted him as he was working on a documentary film in Durango, Colorado. We loved him dearly, and I look back on his life with us fondly. It just reminds me that no matter the dog, I should love it unconditionally. Spread the love, y’all.
