Dog as Subject

May 16

The Price of a Swift Pigeon -

As a follow up to my post from yesterday, an example of the subjectivity of value, specifically for pigeons. 

May 15

I have spent much time examining and reflecting upon the human relationship to pigeons.  I came across this article in my research. How Pigeons Became Rats: The Cultural-Spatial Logic of Problem Animals “Such studies on the problematization of animals demonstrate how sociological insights gained by looking at human deviance (Becker 1963) and social problems (Best 1995) can be extended to animals.  There are issues of interests, authority, and power that go a long way in determining which animals become elevated to the status of a public problem (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988).” It is a dense article but definitely worth reading as it reminds me that our treatment and judgement of other creatures reveals more about us than it does them. 

I have spent much time examining and reflecting upon the human relationship to pigeons.  I came across this article in my research.

How Pigeons Became Rats: The Cultural-Spatial Logic of Problem Animals

“Such studies on the problematization of animals demonstrate how sociological insights gained by looking at human deviance (Becker 1963) and social problems (Best 1995) can be extended to animals.  There are issues of interests, authority, and power that go a long way in determining which animals become elevated to the status of a public problem (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988).”

It is a dense article but definitely worth reading as it reminds me that our treatment and judgement of other creatures reveals more about us than it does them. 

Apr 24

Taken with instagram

Taken with instagram

Mar 13

[video]

Jan 20

[video]

Jan 17

[video]

Jan 09

“A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope- a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life…as only a dog could tell it.” I am skeptical of narratives told from a dog’s perspective because of the assumptions and inclination to anthropomorphize, so I approached this book with some hesitation.  But with passages like this: “Here’s why I will be a good person.  Because I listen.  I cannot speak, so I listen very well.  I never interrupt, I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own.  People, if you pay attention to them, change the direction of one another’s conversations constantly.  It’s like having a passenger in your car who suddenly grabs the steering wheel and turns you down a side street.  For instance, if we met at a party and I wanted to tell you a story about the time I needed to get a soccer ball in my neighbor’s yard but his dog chased me and I had to jump into a swimming pool to escape, and I began telling the story, you, hearing the words “soccer” and “neighbor” in the same sentence, might interrupt and mention that your childhood neighbor was Pelé, the famous soccer player, and I might be courteous and say, Didn’t he play for the Cosmos of New York? Did you grow up in New York? And you might reply that, no, you grew up in Brazil on the streets of Três Corações with Pelé and I might say, I thought you were from Tennessee, and you might say not originally, and then go on to outline your genealogy at length.  So my initial conversational gambit—that I had a funny story about being chased by my neighbor’s dog—would be totally lost, and only because you had to tell me all about Pelé.  Learn to listen!  I beg of you.  Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories.” and “So much of language is unspoken.  So much of language is comprised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words.  People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.  Trish’s robotic repeating of the single word “until” revealed everything about her state of mind.” and “I marveled at them both, how difficult it must be to be a person.  To constantly subvert your desires.  To worry about doing the right thing, rather than doing what is most expedient.  At that moment, honestly, I had grave doubts about as to my ability to interact on such a level.  I wondered if I could ever become the human I hoped to be.” and “Who is Achilles without his tendon? Who is Samson without Delilah? Who is Oedipus without his clubfoot?  Mute by design, I have been able to study the art of rhetoric unfettered by ego and self-interest, and so I know the answers to these questions.  The true hero is flawed.  The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles-preferably of his own making-in order to triumph.  A hero without flaw is of no interest to an audience or to the universe, which after all is based on conflict and opposition, the irresistible force meeting the unmovable object.” In this way, Garth Stein uses the dog’s position in the family, as a silent observer, to comment on the human condition.  The author is less attempting to attribute human like qualities to the dog as he is revealing insights from a perspective the reader trusts as neutral because he is a dog.  Stein introduces the dog, Enzo, early on with: “I’ve always felt almost human.  I’ve always known that there’s something about me that’s different than other dogs.  Sure, I’m stuffed into a dog’s body, but that’s just the shell.  It’s what’s inside that’s important.  The soul.  And my soul is very human.”  Enzo has seen a documentary on Mongolia which explains that when a dog is finished living his lifetime as a dog, his next incarnation will be as a man and this ignites a dream of shedding his dog form and adopting a human one, so he can fully participate in the family he loves.   So I know, it might sound a little crazy, dogs are not human!  But, I looked at my own two dogs after reading this book and wondered even more what they could be thinking.  Unfortunately, they are not as cooperative and responsive as Enzo is, but still, I wonder if there isn’t a soul in there who is struggling as much as I am to figure this life out?  And that query inspires compassion in me.  So although I think it can be confusing and frustrating for humans (and dogs) to think dogs can understand English and be human, I found The Art of Racing in the Rain to successfully illustrate why we are lucky to share our lives with these creatures.  You just never know!

“A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope- a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life…as only a dog could tell it.”

I am skeptical of narratives told from a dog’s perspective because of the assumptions and inclination to anthropomorphize, so I approached this book with some hesitation. 

But with passages like this:

“Here’s why I will be a good person.  Because I listen.  I cannot speak, so I listen very well.  I never interrupt, I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own.  People, if you pay attention to them, change the direction of one another’s conversations constantly.  It’s like having a passenger in your car who suddenly grabs the steering wheel and turns you down a side street.  For instance, if we met at a party and I wanted to tell you a story about the time I needed to get a soccer ball in my neighbor’s yard but his dog chased me and I had to jump into a swimming pool to escape, and I began telling the story, you, hearing the words “soccer” and “neighbor” in the same sentence, might interrupt and mention that your childhood neighbor was Pelé, the famous soccer player, and I might be courteous and say, Didn’t he play for the Cosmos of New York? Did you grow up in New York? And you might reply that, no, you grew up in Brazil on the streets of Três Corações with Pelé and I might say, I thought you were from Tennessee, and you might say not originally, and then go on to outline your genealogy at length.  So my initial conversational gambit—that I had a funny story about being chased by my neighbor’s dog—would be totally lost, and only because you had to tell me all about Pelé.  Learn to listen!  I beg of you.  Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories.”

and

“So much of language is unspoken.  So much of language is comprised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words.  People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.  Trish’s robotic repeating of the single word “until” revealed everything about her state of mind.”

and

“I marveled at them both, how difficult it must be to be a person.  To constantly subvert your desires.  To worry about doing the right thing, rather than doing what is most expedient.  At that moment, honestly, I had grave doubts about as to my ability to interact on such a level.  I wondered if I could ever become the human I hoped to be.”

and

“Who is Achilles without his tendon? Who is Samson without Delilah? Who is Oedipus without his clubfoot?  Mute by design, I have been able to study the art of rhetoric unfettered by ego and self-interest, and so I know the answers to these questions. 

The true hero is flawed.  The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles-preferably of his own making-in order to triumph.  A hero without flaw is of no interest to an audience or to the universe, which after all is based on conflict and opposition, the irresistible force meeting the unmovable object.”

In this way, Garth Stein uses the dog’s position in the family, as a silent observer, to comment on the human condition.  The author is less attempting to attribute human like qualities to the dog as he is revealing insights from a perspective the reader trusts as neutral because he is a dog. 

Stein introduces the dog, Enzo, early on with:

“I’ve always felt almost human.  I’ve always known that there’s something about me that’s different than other dogs.  Sure, I’m stuffed into a dog’s body, but that’s just the shell.  It’s what’s inside that’s important.  The soul.  And my soul is very human.” 

Enzo has seen a documentary on Mongolia which explains that when a dog is finished living his lifetime as a dog, his next incarnation will be as a man and this ignites a dream of shedding his dog form and adopting a human one, so he can fully participate in the family he loves.  

So I know, it might sound a little crazy, dogs are not human!  But, I looked at my own two dogs after reading this book and wondered even more what they could be thinking.  Unfortunately, they are not as cooperative and responsive as Enzo is, but still, I wonder if there isn’t a soul in there who is struggling as much as I am to figure this life out?  And that query inspires compassion in me. 

So although I think it can be confusing and frustrating for humans (and dogs) to think dogs can understand English and be human, I found The Art of Racing in the Rain to successfully illustrate why we are lucky to share our lives with these creatures. 

You just never know!

Jan 05

[video]

Dec 28

[video]

Dec 21

After reading that “Federal sharpshooters are preparing to take to the skies of Northern Idaho in an ill-conceived attempt to kill as many as 75 wolves to artificially boost game populations”  I shared the Defender’s campaign on facebook with the hope of accumulating more signatures on the petition against such action.  The book by Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf, a book that I’ve mentioned on this blog before, came to mind yet again.  In the novel, Mowat is sent by Canada’s wildlife service to “investigate the cause of declining caribou populations and determine whether wolves are to blame for the shortage. Mowat discovers that rather than being killers of caribou, the wolves subsist quite heavily on small mammals such as rodents and hares, ‘even choosing them over caribou when available.’ He concludes that ‘We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be — the mythological epitome of a savage, ruthless killer — which is, in reality, no more than the reflected image of ourself.’ “ Although the book was criticized for not being entirely factual, Mowat has illustrated a strong point: that we don’t always understand the relationships between all the parts in this amazing world.  Another relevant author: Tom Wessels, wrote the book The Myth of Progress.  In it he discusses a very important concept: carrying capacity and the limits to growth.  He uses an example of 29 reindeer being introduced in 1944 to St. Matthew Island in the middle of the Bering Sea as a means to supply fresh meat to operators at the LORAN (long-range aid to navigation) station there.  When the station was later closed, the reindeer herd was forgotten and twelve years later, a wildlife biologist counted 1,350 healthy animals, a forty-seven fold growth that can be attributed to good habitat with lots of lichen and a lack of any predators.  In the next visit seven years later, the biologist, David Klein, counted 6,000 animals, but this time, the creatures were noticeable malnourished, their food source havng been degraded.  Three years later, only 42 individuals remained, all were females with the exception of one deformed male.  At this point, the herd was no longer able to reproduce and the population became extinct within the next 24 years. I mention these two authors because they address issues that come up when I consider Idaho’s wildlife services’ choice to kill wolves.  Although I know it’s too late, I personally feel to manipulate populations and environments is to open Pandora’s Box.  I understand that our brains allow for complex thought and we’ve created so many ways to “live luxuriously” that living in balance is extremely difficult.  How do I celebrate gift giving without wrapping paper?  But I cast my vote for a simpler more harmonious way of being. It seems that our lives depend on it!!!!!! link to Wildlife Defenders website

After reading that “Federal sharpshooters are preparing to take to the skies of Northern Idaho in an ill-conceived attempt to kill as many as 75 wolves to artificially boost game populations”  I shared the Defender’s campaign on facebook with the hope of accumulating more signatures on the petition against such action. 

The book by Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf, a book that I’ve mentioned on this blog before, came to mind yet again.  In the novel, Mowat is sent by Canada’s wildlife service to “investigate the cause of declining caribou populations and determine whether wolves are to blame for the shortage. Mowat discovers that rather than being killers of caribou, the wolves subsist quite heavily on small mammals such as rodents and hares, ‘even choosing them over caribou when available.’ He concludes that ‘We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be — the mythological epitome of a savage, ruthless killer — which is, in reality, no more than the reflected image of ourself.’ “

Although the book was criticized for not being entirely factual, Mowat has illustrated a strong point: that we don’t always understand the relationships between all the parts in this amazing world. 

Another relevant author: Tom Wessels, wrote the book The Myth of Progress.  In it he discusses a very important concept: carrying capacity and the limits to growth.  He uses an example of 29 reindeer being introduced in 1944 to St. Matthew Island in the middle of the Bering Sea as a means to supply fresh meat to operators at the LORAN (long-range aid to navigation) station there.  When the station was later closed, the reindeer herd was forgotten and twelve years later, a wildlife biologist counted 1,350 healthy animals, a forty-seven fold growth that can be attributed to good habitat with lots of lichen and a lack of any predators. 

In the next visit seven years later, the biologist, David Klein, counted 6,000 animals, but this time, the creatures were noticeable malnourished, their food source havng been degraded.  Three years later, only 42 individuals remained, all were females with the exception of one deformed male.  At this point, the herd was no longer able to reproduce and the population became extinct within the next 24 years.

I mention these two authors because they address issues that come up when I consider Idaho’s wildlife services’ choice to kill wolves.  Although I know it’s too late, I personally feel to manipulate populations and environments is to open Pandora’s Box.  I understand that our brains allow for complex thought and we’ve created so many ways to “live luxuriously” that living in balance is extremely difficult.  How do I celebrate gift giving without wrapping paper?  But I cast my vote for a simpler more harmonious way of being. It seems that our lives depend on it!!!!!!

link to Wildlife Defenders website