Sunday, March 06, 2005

The Dog Suicides, Part 2



Click the pooch to enlarge.

This story has been bugging me: http://jackbrummet.blogspot.com/2005/03/canine-suicides.html No one has a more cynical estimation of dog intelligence than I do. They will fetch a stick for hours, they sit endlessly waiting to be petted, and you can hook them up in teams to drag a sled through miles of snow. They are faithful and devoted, but they are none too swift. They are flat-out too dumb to commit suicide (not that committing suicide is a hallmark of intelligence...but it does indicate reasoning, however faulty).

A passel of heroic dog stories exist, but I look upon them with a jaundiced eye. We have even heard stories before of animal suicide (the greatly exaggerated stories of lemmings marching off cliffs into the sea). Aside from the well-known urban legend of a dog chasing a ball thrown through a top-floor apartment's window, there is not a lot of information about dog suicides.

The dogs in Dumbarton, Scotland are either being hucked off the bridge by some sicko, or the highly improbable explanation of an optical illusion is actually true. I hope they follow up this story.
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