Dog and Man

Posted by Twelvebit (Victoria, United States) on 3 October 2007 in Animal & Insect.

I go back to the Roundtop Antique Fair where I found this man and his dog. I was surprised to find so many dogs about because America is not a particularly pet friendly place --at least compared to countries in Europe. Certainly, here, you won't see someone eating inside a restaurant with their dog laying under the table, or someone walking through a department store with a dog on a leash (and I'm not talking about guide dogs). In fact, it's so unusual to see dogs like this in public places that companies like Petco make a big deal out of allowing you to bring your dog into the store.

If some of the comments and replies are mystifying, it's because I've edited the original posting to make it less of a downer. In fact, I feel rather foolish about even the comments I made above, when the subject is considered from a different, and less Eurocentric perspective. Suffice it to say that I was pleased to find this dog, and many others at this fair, in the company of people who loved them.

This photo is obviously posed. I asked this man permission to take photos of his dog and when you ask permission you generally get posed photos. I prefer photos of people to be candid and un-posed, but sometimes asking permission is the best approach, no matter the preference.

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Comments (4)

kairospix from Singapore, Singapore

Yeah I watched a documentary about how the authorities forced owners to leave thire pets behind when Katrina came...it's terrible!
It's just so sad that there are people out there who are so cruel to animals!
anyway good capture of the dog and its owner!

3 Oct 2007 2:35pm

@kairospix: Thank you.

Amir from ?, United States

I am very surprised to hear that Europe is more pet friendly than US. For a short period I lived in UK and some other European countries, but I guess it was not long enough to see the difference of treatment.

Your standard is Europe and mine is Middle East, or at least, west Asian countries, Such as Turkey, Iran plus India, Pakistan and not to forget nations of north Africa. All these places animal lives means nothing to majority of the public or the authority. Peopel often do not care for pets, let alone owning them.

This has to do about interpretation of Islam about domestic animals, specially dogs. In Islam dogs are regarded as "Najes", meaning extremely dirty. If one comes to contact with dog hair or saliva, person needs to clean that area 7 times with clean earth (usually clay). Dogs are regraded as animals that make everything dirty.

In super extremist countries such as Saudi Arabia, people are not allowed to have dogs. In Iran with rise of affluent class, pet ownership is on the rise. But autorithies have passed regualtions regarding pet ownership in recent years, for example, I red in the news that people who dare to bring their pets outside for a walk or in the car, had their loved ones taken by force to animal collection centers and left alone with other collected dogs to die.

I often heard that an stray animal was shot to death because they did not have or did want to use tranquilizer. It's simply saddens me.

Colclusion:

I certainly don't want to get political here, but I need to mention that in a world were human lives, or at least the non-wester version of it, has no value and can be taken at will, what can we expect about animals that are different around 1-2% on chromosomal level?

In a world filled with injustice, wars, crimes, massacre and genocides against humanity, is their any space left to worry about beings that are less vocal and supposedly less intelligent? The world is simply bad place and this is one manifestation of it.

3 Oct 2007 3:59pm

@Amir: Opps, forgot to use the reply icon and posted my reply in the wrong place.

Twelvebit from Victoria, United States

Amir: "In a world filled with injustice, wars, crimes, massacre and genocides against humanity, is their any space left to worry about beings that are less vocal and supposedly less intelligent? The world is simply bad place and this is one manifestation of it."

I agree with you. And your description of the situation for animals in the Middle East also fits with my understanding. There are also horrible things done to animals in some Asian countries. For instance, I've seen videos of cats being thrown alive into boiling water, and literally skinned alive. I've also heard of dog roundups in China like you describe in Iran. On the other hand , if I understand the Muslim religion correctly, this is ironic, because, though dogs are regarded as dirty, cruelty to animals is also prohibited by the Koran. I've spent time in Europe, but I have never lived in Asia or the Middle East, so I didn't draw any comparisons with those two areas of the world.

I also expect more from my own country than I do from, say, Saudi Arabia, or Iran. We can argue about the legitimacy of certain cultural differences, from a moral perspective, but I deliberately avoided this aspect of the issue in my comments by focusing on the US. Perhaps my wording suggested that the incidents I described are cultural "norms." In fact, I think they are not, as is evidenced by the fact that the people committing these acts normally try to hide them from public view. In the Katrina evacuation, the authorities deliberately lied to people about the fate of their pets in order to reduce their resistance, so they knew many people would not accept their behavior. The cops who were shooting these animals in the aftermath for the fun of it, did it "off camera," so to speak, and they also tried to lie about it when complaints were lodged.

I work with someone who told me about shooting the family dog, for, essentially, being a dog. This person could tell I was horrified, yet they obviously thought doing it was AOK. This person, a female, is educated and VERY affluent, and could easily have afforded to have the dog euthanized by a vet, but thought nothing of taking it out into the country and shooting it in the head. We have capital punishment in Texas and we don't even shoot convicted child rapists and murderers --we give them a lethal injection.

There is also great irony in the fact that Americans, by and large, love their pets, yet are virtually indifferent to destroying the lives of millions of people throughout the world. All we need is a reason. I suppose it's harder for us to rationalize killing animals because animals are innocent creatures, whereas we can always find "guilt" of some kind or another in other people. It's very sad that so many of the beings of "higher intelligence" and self-awareness take the pleasure they do in cruelty, and in destroying the lives of other living creatures.

3 Oct 2007 7:05pm

Amir from ?, United States

You are right about the notion that Islam has prohibited cruelty against animals. But you tell me which religion has openly endorsed cruelty? The answer is none.

What is religion is the interpretation of one generation after the other from a teaching of an old school of thought. People interpret things based on their likings. I don't want to get off topic here, but it's suited to mention that no where in Koran or Islamic texts God has commanded people to kill innocent beings, women, children and civilians. But as we all witnessed, on 11th of September some people did just that. And they do that everyday is Iraq and Afghanistan and other places around the world. This is not specific to Islam, but rather expandable to all major and minor religions, including but not limited to Christianity and Judaism.

People interpret that because God said dogs are dirty, it's OK to kill them, while there is no such permission given. I went to this animal shelter in Ft. Worth to get a companion for our little dog. There were rows and rows of cages filled with dogs and cats, waiting for their time to be put down by lethal injection. All innocent beings that their only guilt is to exist.

I wanted to cry, cry and scream loud that while all 6.6 billions of human beings can live side by side in the state of Texas with 600,000 square kilometer in area, why there is not enough space on Earth's 510 million square killometer land masses for all the creatures of God?

We human think of ourselves very highly. We think we are best and most civilized creatures that ever walked on Earth; while we are the cruelest, most selfish, most uncivilized abomination that have ravaged this blue globe for ages. We are a creature that have no respect even for our own race, let alone for other beings.

We use Darwinian theories to explain and justify our deeds and kill others. The survival of fittest, while the surviving is based in oceans of blood. We think we are wise, while we have only been here roughly 2 million years .

In geology there is time table for significant events, starting from day our universe was formed. This clock is known as "geological time scale". If you divide the whole 4.6 billion years of Earth's history to 24, as 24 hours in a day, our existence comes to light at 23h:50m:30s. Now go figure this much self glorification from a creature this much new and this much wild.

3 Oct 2007 7:45pm

@Amir: Well my friend, I am an enemy of dogma, no matter how it is labeled, and I absolutely agree with you: people find in their dogma, religious or secular, the rationalizations that give them permission to do what they want to do.

I got my dog from a very small pound and I found the process painful almost beyond endurance. It was extremely difficult for me to leave with just one dog, but we had two at home already, and he was to be the third. No honest person can look into the eyes of these animals and deny that they feel pain, loneliness, sadness, joy, and fear.

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