dogs
Ladakhis Cherish Cranes
The environment and conservation website Mongabay.com posted a news story last week on the threats that feral dogs are posing to the survival of black-necked cranes. The reporter, Athar Parvaiz, discusses the damage that wild dogs do to the crane eggs and the chicks in the nests, as well as to other wildlife in the […]
Protecting the Rights of the Homeless
An interesting drama that played out last week in a courtroom in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, evidently captured the attention and sympathies of the Tahitians. A magistrate agreed with the pleas of two homeless Tahitian people that they had the right to keep their dogs with them, despite the fact that they had […]
Ifaluk Atoll Has an Uncertain Future
A prominent educator from Massachusetts spent some time on Ifaluk Island 40 years ago so now he has decided to return there to live out the rest of his life. John Chittick was born and raised in the small city of Fitchburg, completed an Ed.D. from Harvard, and went on to have a career as […]
The Dogs of Ladakh Are Not Necessarily Peaceful
A report in an Indian daily newspaper last week paid tribute to the storied peacefulness of Ladakh—and proceeded to castigate the local dogs for destroying it. The journalist, Ayesha Singh, wrote in the New Indian Express that “one of the most peaceful lands in the world” is marred by the barking of dogs and, worse, […]
The Peaceful Ju/’hoansi Mistreat their Dogs
James Suzman published an essay last week that raises a troubling question: why would a supposedly peaceful society such as the Ju/’hoansi treat animals cruelly? Suzman’s op-ed piece in the New York Times describes in some detail his observations about the San people, and particularly their uncaring and frequently hostile treatment of their dogs. The […]
