Who is Served, Man or Dog?

The Ancient Partnership Is Threatened

by Margaret Byrd

The dog’s psychological and medical service to mankind is a partnership threatened by animal rights activists.

Insight on the dog’s foreseen but as yet untapped service to mankind is threatened by animal rights legislation to insure dogs are “gone.”

One popular misconception is that man domesticated the dog at the dawn of time.  It is now believed that dogs actually domesticated man.

Using modern dumps and feral dogs as models, scientists realized that those dogs that had the least need to flee the human presence benefited by being the first to garner scraps from the dumping area.  Those that were “tamer” (had a higher tolerance for human proximity) grew stronger, bred to each other and produced animals with a similar temperament.  Wolves evolved that favored proximity with humans as a survival strategy, and a variant was created, thus the domestic dog.

We can surmise that over time, wolves began to alert the hunters to game. Human and animal learned to watch each other’s behavior to make their chances of survival greater. In essence, the two species became a single pack. It’s not a stretch to imagine that such animals would become nearly sacred to early man, perhaps even revered as a spirit helper and given a portion of the kill.

Having bred dogs for many years, I have seen that the ability to learn, and even the desire to obey commands, passes from the parents to the offspring. Animals that hunted in a pack were more likely to survive and humans who recognized the dogs’ emerging behaviors as mutually beneficial talents were more likely to benefit and prosper. As man evolved, so did our ability to harness the dog’s natural abilities in specific ways to benefit humans.

HOW THE DOG SERVES MANKIND

Dogs are one of mankind’s greatest resources. They allowed man to conquer the frozen waste or to better survive in the desert and in the jungle. The two species have benefited from proximity with one another and together they have prospered in an immensely successful mutual survival strategy.

Dogs became Breeds as they were selected and bred for a specific purpose. Just as early dogs served mankind in the hunt, some began to show talent for other purposes. My favored breed, the Jack Russell Terrier, was thought to have originated from a mutt owned by a milkman. Who knows how many important yet undiscovered talents are hidden in the mutt living next door.

Hidden within the genetic code of the canine are untapped talents waiting for an opportunity to serve man’s psychological and medical needs, and in an uncertain world, perhaps even once again, the dog may help to insure modern man’s survival.

In addition to serving as man’s eyes, ears, and helping hand, we have finally learned to pay attention dogs indicate illness in our bodies. We have learned to “read” our dogs and understand their signals when they warn of epileptic seizures and low blood sugar, thus allowing owners to live more normal lives. Because we developed an ability to “read” each other, owners convinced scientists that dogs can “sense” or smell cancers. Today, dogs are being taught to diagnose cancer from urine samples. What else will dogs do for mankind?

Statistics prove that humans who share their lives with dogs have a longer life expectancy than non-dog owners. Somehow they complete us and bring us to a fuller, happier life.

WILL MAN’S BEST FRIEND BECOME EXTINCT?

How sad that even as we begin to recognize the benefits to mankind, this ancient man-dog partnership is threatened by people who don’t even care about the animals. PETA had a 97% kill rate in their shelter last year. HSUS collects money for animals yet it does not run a single shelter. Such groups seek to remove our rights to hunt, fish, and breed or even own animals. They demand all dogs be spayed and neutered thus fulfilling the famous HSUS quote “One generation and out."

Sure, dogs can be raised in laboratories. Would wolves have come to man knowing they would be doomed to a lab-life? Would a laboratory born-raised-and caged dog care about that funny mole on your face? Like the rain forest, dogs have countless undiscovered resources to help mankind but like the great forests, they are being systematically destroyed by animal rights activists who say we are enslaving them. Such thinking ignores the science and the simple but significant fact that dogs came to man willingly.

The Animal Rights ii agenda demands mandatory spay/neuter laws even though it’s already been shown that education and low cost spay/neuter programs successfully reduce unwanted pet populations. They also use their vast legislative and political resources to infringe on the legal and property rights of dog owners. If they succeed, then we will lose something very precious.

The irony of all this is that it is animal lovers who support the “animal rights” groups! They think they are helping animals when in fact those organizations are using that money to strip animal lovers of their rights and to break the bond that has evolved both man and dog so successfully.

We must become proactive to protect our partnership with dogs. We must educate the public about the benefits provided by pet ownership. We can’t afford to sit back and hope someone else is going to speak for us. We need ad campaigns to counteract the propaganda put forth by the Animal Rights Activists.

It is time that our voice was heard for if it is not, we will silently lose our ancient partnership with the dog, one law at a time. In so doing, we are robbing our children and grandchildren of yet-to-be discovered ways in which dogs serve mankind. Would we rob future generations of the psychological, physical, and just being tapped, the enormous medical advances offered by our Best Friend?

Related Article:  Evolution of Dog Breeders and Animal Rights  ~  Instant Information ii YOUR Governor, Senators, and Congressional Representatives

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