Humans should more responsible with dogs
Dogs have been around for millions of years. The fossil record shows three main groups of dogs - the third one, the canines, produced the dogs we know today.
Fossil and genetic evidence confirms that all dogs are the descendants of wolves - all 400 or so domestic breeds. Peter Tyson, in Nova's "A Potpourri of Pooches," recounts the genetic studies conducted at UCLA, which showed the DNA of dogs and wolves to be very similar.
With a common ancestor, how did dogs become so diverse? Scientists are unsure. The first archaeological evidence of dogs becoming distinct from wolves (and at least semi-domesticated) comes from roughly 12,000 years ago in the Middle East, Tyson says.
He adds that in 2000 B.C., dogs resembling the modern day pharaoh hound are depicted on Egyptian tombs, which suggests that "both domestication and diversification were underway."
Karen E. Lange, author of National Geographic's "Wolf to Woof, The Evolution of Dogs," says scientists do not agree on why dogs became domesticated. Some say humans adopted wolf pups and that natural selection favored those less aggressive and better at begging for food. Others argue dogs domesticated themselves by adapting to a new niche - human refuse dumps.
Up until the late 19th century, dogs were bred for certain skills: running down prey (greyhound), hunting rodents in holes (terriers), flushing and fetching game (pointers and retrievers). In the late 1800s, when kennel clubs first formed, breeding for appearance rather than behavior began in earnest. Then pure-breeding also started.
"The dog evolved in the company of humans and cannot exist without them," Lange writes. "Even the vast majority living 'wild' as village scavengers depended on proximity to humans."
That relationship has become so intimate that dogs are permanently changed, possibly to their own peril.
"The domestic dog exists precariously in the no man's land between the human and nonhuman ... neither person nor beast," biologist James Serpell writes.
From a historical perspective, humans aren't looking so good. We had our part in domesticating dogs. We then bred them for our own needs, making them dependent on us for their survival. Now, we euthanize them because there are no homes for them.
Slowly, we're doing better. According to the American Pet Products Association 2015-2016 National Pet Owners Survey, 37 percent of owned dogs are adopted from shelters (up from 35 percent in 2012-2013) and 86 percent of owned dogs are spayed and neutered.
However, the Humane Society of the United States estimates 68 million dogs and cats enter shelters each year, with 3 million to 4 million dogs and cats being euthanized each year.
Clearly, we humans still aren't living up to our part of the bargain we made.
You're invited:
The Buddy Foundation invites you to its eighth Anniversary Party at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 18, at the shelter, 65 Seeger Road, Arlington Heights. It's been eight years since we've been here. So come and play and share our day. For details, call (847) 290-5806.
• The Buddy Foundation, 65 W. Seegers Road, Arlington Heights, is a nonprofit (501c3), all volunteer, no-kill animal shelter. For information, call (847) 290-5806 or visit www.thebuddyfoundation.org.