Thursday, August 19, 2010

From Wolf to Woof

Man's best friend can do anything; from saving lives to sniffing out drugs, our canine friends are more than mere companion.
Many of us have dogs at home. Some people love their pet so much they allow the animal to venture into home and bedroom. But we all know that dogs are the direct descendants of the Gray Wolf.


Some said that early humans adopted wolf pups and that natural selection favored the less aggressive and better at begging for food animals. Others said dogs domesticated themselves by adapting to a new niche—human refuse dumps. Scavenging canids that were less likely to flee from people survived in this niche, and succeeding generations became increasingly tame.

Wolf and us have several things in common.
Firstly, we were both hunters and also hunted in packs. It was certain that during the course of our evolution our paths would have regularly crossed, we would have even hunted and eaten each other. That's the beginning of our relationship with our canine friends.

Wolves live in packs, headed by an Alpha male and Alpha female. The Alphas are the most aggressive couple in a pack, and the only pair that breeds. The resulting cubs will be taken care of by all members of the pack. Other wolves involve in hunting and the cubs' protection, but never allowed to breed.

Upon reaching maturity, the young wolves will be driven out from the pack to start a pack of their own. They must venture out from the packs' territory to avoid future confrontation, sometimes as far as 30-40 kilometers away.
There are, however, weaker and less aggressive members of the pack. They get the least food during hunting.

Sometime around 15,000 years ago, some of these less aggressive wolves started to approach human to eat the scraps from their leftovers.

After wolves learned not to bite the hand that fed them, French poodles weren’t far behind. The wolves got food from us, and in turn they helped us in hunting, and some even ended up as food. o.O
Korean eat dogs
Chinese eat dogs too
Though there was evidence to suggest that dogs genetically diverged from their wolf ancestors at least 15,000 years ago, some believed domestication has occurred earlier. Domesticated dogs first appeared in East Asia, probably China. They then spread across Asia and Europe, and then accompanied their two-legged companions into the Americas.



Today, some breeds are still dangerously aggressive because breeders retain their aggressive trait for our benefit; for guarding warehouses and crime fighting. Some are exceptionally gorgeous, a far cry from the shadow that once inhabited our nightmares.




La China, an 8-year-old dog from Argentina, found a baby boy who had been abandoned in a field by his 14-year-old mother, and carried him more than 160 feet to nestle him among her own puppies. La China's owner heard the baby crying, and called the authorities. The mother came forward shortly after her son was found. 

Malcolm

info:
http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/2008/08/26/dog-rescues-baby.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog
http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/dogs.htm

7 comments:

  1. Hey, you're wrong.
    The picture about 'Korean eat dogs' is not a picture about Korean.
    It is a picture about Vietnamese.
    Korean didn't cook the dogs that way...

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  2. Please do some research before making a general statement about an entire culture. Ignorance is no excuse.

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  3. The Alpha wolf theory is also outdated. And there are a variety of theories about how dogs were domesticated. Natural selection probably did not "pick" less aggressive pups once they were taken into human company - the humans most likely would off the ones that were aggressive. It's generally agreed that there are a variety of ways the dog could have been domesticated, not just one, and that they all could have occurred across time and/or space. Dogs living off of human refuse and garbage is a common occurrence even today. It is also possible that humans were the ones following the wolves to food, possibly scaring the wolves off after they made a kill and leaving parts they didn't want to use. Anyways, do a little extra research, and always back up what you say with references or links to strengthen your arguments.

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  4. Ew how can Asians east dogs? Breaks my heart. Oh and btw that barbecue dog pic is Vietnamese. I learnt that from my gf.

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  5. Dog meat is believed to keep the body warm and improve virility. It has a sour and salty taste and comforts the digestive system. The South Korean dog meat industry in itself involved about 1 million dogs, 6,000 restaurants, and 10 percent of the population. Various parts of China also find eating dog meat socially acceptable.

    The Western society, however, is outraged, calling such a practice barbaric. Not only is the consumption of dog meat in America a cultural taboo, those who do eat dog are criticized. Numerous animal rights activists have publicly criticized the dog meat industry and even FIFA, the world soccer organization, has called on South Korean to stop eating dogs.

    But there is an essential question yet to have been answered: What’s wrong with eating dogs?

    Anti-dog-meat activists claim that eating dog meat is inhumane because dogs are pets—friends, not animals. Brigitte Bardot, the French actress-turned-activist who called on FIFA to protest dog meat consumption in South Korea said “I had protested against the cruel treatment of geese for food. But geese are generally seen as food. Meanwhile, dogs are close friends to humans so that people must not make them suffer." But “food dogs” are not pets nor are they close friends to humans. They are bred in farms, just like any other livestock. They are killed humanely, just like any other livestock. And they are sold and prepared for consumption, just like any livestock.

    However, despite the parallel treatment between “food dogs” and any other livestock on the market, most people, even the Korean government itself, do not widely accept such a practice. In fact, though not strictly enforced, it is illegal to eat dog meat in Korea. And contrary to popular belief, dogs are rarely eaten, if at all, in most Asian households.

    The debate on whether eating dog meat seems to be based on cultural differences and like most controversies, no side can win completely without continuing opposition. An international ban on dog meat would be imperialistic and would almost seem like a blatant attempt by the Western world to impose their cultural standards on the East. However, the continuation of the dog meat industry would anger animal activists and would be an act of insensitivity towards those who hold that dogs, despite what country they were raised in, are truly man’s best friends.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are disgusting,vile and cruel don't make excuses for eating dogs I am sure you have a good excuse as to why they are skinned ALIVE beforehand too don't you?

      Delete

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