A Brief History
Today, April 24, 2016, we take a moment to recognize the incredibly important role animals have played throughout human history. When early Man first competed for food among other herbivores, those skills needed to survive helped shape the evolution of humans. When early Man started eating meat, the rate of growth of the brain became dramatically increased, forever placing humans in a position of dominance over highly capable, but less intelligent animals.
Digging Deeper
King James Bible
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth
Humans have more or less always assumed a superiority over those animals that could be captured or killed, and as we see from the Bible, humans have assumed a God-Given right to that superiority. Animals originally not only provided food and clothing for people, their skins, bones and teeth provided various tools and implements as well as shelter. Sometime in the Late Pleistocene or even earlier (12,000 to 30,000 years ago) humans first took in Wolf cubs and kept them as pets and companions. These Wolf cubs were selectively bred, only those showing compatibility with people allowed to breed, and developed into dogs. These dogs became not only man’s oldest animal companion, but also man’s greatest animal companion, providing protection, aid in hunting, warmth on cold nights, and a companionship not matched by any other animal.
The remarkable dog is employed today as an assistant to blind or otherwise handicapped people, as early warning for epileptics and diabetic persons, and as therapy for emotionally distressed patients. These are much better uses than blasting a dog into space or holding Greyhound races!
Soon after dogs, humans domesticated sheep and goats, relying on these animals for their wool, meat and milk. Larger and stronger animals such as cattle and horses were then tamed and put to work as draft animals and for transportation. Even the mighty elephant, the largest and strongest animal on land was tamed and put into the service of humans, not only for work and for transportation but even for war. Various poultry became livestock kept for eggs, meat and feathers.
Unfortunately for the critters of Earth, humans have often adapted animals for use in War. Horses and elephants carried men into battle or lugged war equipment, and dogs have been used for millennia for scouting, tracking, attack and more recently even detecting bombs and mines. Dolphins and seals have been trained to discover enemy divers and underwater explosives, and pigeons have carried messages for armies even in the 20th Century. During World War II the Americans attempted to develop a “Bat Bomb” containing thousands of bats each equipped with a tiny incendiary bomb to burn Japanese cities. Americans also attempted to develop pigeon guided bombs to sink enemy ships! Other sad uses of animals during war included tying burning bits of cloth or paper to the tails of cats and letting them run into besieged cities to start widespread fires. Other living and dead animals carrying diseases and disease bearing fleas were flung into walled cities and forts in an early form of biological warfare. Soviets used dogs equipped with anti-tank mines to blow up German tanks during World War II, but without much success.
Mankind’s cruelty to animals goes beyond war, as sadistic experiments have long been performed on unwilling critters from Guinea Pigs and Mice to Chimps. Some of this research has been quite necessary and productive, while other experiments border on animal torture. Many animals have been made extinct by over hunting and habitat destruction, and the results of Man’s pollution of the environment. Ill advised attempts to introduce animals into non-native habitats have also often met with disaster, such as the Carp, Cane Toads, Rabbits, Burros, Starlings, and Pigeons being introduced to places they do not belong, crowding out native wildlife in the process. Obviously, animal fighting expositions such as Bull Fights, Cock Fighting and Dog Fighting garner much criticism.
The Great Whales, the largest animals on Earth, were hunted to near extinction, and people persist in the unnecessary harvest of these majestic beasts. The American Buffalo (Bison bison) was intentionally hunted to virtual extinction to deprive Native Americans of their use, forcing the Native American Plains people to stay on reservations or face starvation. Luckily, the few remaining Bison have been nurtured back to reasonably safe numbers.
The pet industry and zoo keeping has been somewhat controversial lately, with Sea World taking heat for their use of captive Killer Whales in shows. Some people today even refer to keeping pets and livestock as animal slavery! Whether you agree with Man’s dominion over animals or not, the rest of the world mostly does, and animals today are still being used in innumerable ways to “serve” Humankind. Please share your opinions about animal husbandry or your favorite animal story.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
Gandhi
Written September 1816: “If you do not like dogs, you do not like fidelity; you do not like those who are attached to you; and, therefore, you are not faithful.”
Napoleon
Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite animal in history? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Hobgood-Oster, Laura. A Dog’s History of the World. Baylor University Press, 2014.
Homans, John. What’s a Dog For?: The Surprising History, Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Man’s Best Friend. Penguin Books, 2013.
The featured image in this article, a painting by Adolf Eberle (1843–1914) of Die Dackelfamilie mit Jäger und Magd, is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer.
