The Universal KinshipMoore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Philosophy
The Universal Kinship
Moore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Evolution; Human beings; Sociology
one or two dogs, at a distance of some miles from any house or
man.’ When the dogs get hungry, they come home for food, but
immediately return to the flock on being fed. ‘It is amusing,’
remarks this writer, ‘to observe, when approaching a flock, how
the dog immediately advances barking, while the sheep all close in
his rear as around the oldest ram.’ Romanes relates an incident
which well illustrates the high character and intelligence of the
dog and its wonderful devotion to a trust. ‘It was a Scotch
collie. Her master was in the habit of consigning sheep to her
charge without supervision. On this particular occasion he remained
behind or proceeded by another road. On arriving at home late in the
evening, he was astonished to learn that his faithful animal had not
made her appearance with the drove. He immediately set out in search
of her. But on going out into the streets, there she was coming with
the drove, not one missing, and, marvellous to relate, she was
carrying a young puppy in her mouth. She had been taken in travail
on the hills, and how the poor creature had contrived to manage her
drove in her condition is beyond human calculation, for her road lay
through sheep all the way. Her master’s heart smote him when he
saw what she had suffered and effected. But she was nothing daunted,
and after depositing her young one in a place of safety she again
set out full speed for the hills, and brought another and another,
till she brought the whole litter, one by one; but the last one was
dead’.[1]
What a wonderful transformation in canine character! The very beings
whose blood the dog once drank with ravenous thirst it now protects
with courage and fidelity. And this transformation in character is
not due to education simply. It is innate. Young dogs brought from
Tierra del Fuego or Australia, where the natives do not keep such
domestic animals as sheep, pigs, and poultry, invariably have an
incurable propensity for attacking these animals.
The feeling of ownership possessed by so many dogs is an entirely
new element in canine character, a trait implanted wholly by human
selection. Bold and confident on his own premises, the dog
immediately becomes weak and apologetic when placed in circumstances
in which he feels he has no rights.
The pointers and setters have been developed as distinct breeds by
human selection during the past 150 or 200 years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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