"The World Is Full of Dogs Without Collars"
Three-quarters of the billion dogs on the planet are not pets. A new book argues that they are more than strays and may tell us much about the nature of dogs. But there are about a billion dogs on Earth, according to some estimates. The other 750 million don’t have flea collars. And they certainly don’t have humans who take them for walks and pick up their feces. They are called village dogs, street dogs and free-breeding dogs, among other things, and they haunt the garbage dumps and neighborhoods of most of the world.argued against the widely held view that one day a hunter-gatherer grabbed a wolf pup from a den and started a breeding program. Many scientists argue dogs domesticated themselves. Some wild canines started hanging around humans for their leftovers and gradually evolved into scavengers dependent on humans. Not everyone in canine science shares that view today, but many researchers think it is the most plausible route to domestication. They have remarkably varied connections to human beings. Some live completely on their own at dumps. Some are neighborhood dogs, recognized and perhaps given handouts by people who live in a certain area. Others may feed and breed on their own, but spend nights at the homes of people. Sometimes they are adopted by people. But really, Dr. Coppinger says, it is the dogs who adopt humans. The number of dogs that can survive in a city or a neighborhood or at a dump is determined by the available garbage. The Coppingers calculated that in the tropics it takes about 100 people to produce enough garbage to support seven free-living dogs. The Coppingers suggest a simple answer. One way or another village dogs depend on garbage. If society wants fewer dogs in the street, there’s a surefire solution.
This article got my attention after watching the killing coyotes documentary in class. The idea of having so many stray dogs living in inhabited areas has never really hit me as being a growing problem. Dogs have always been known as “man’s best friend” and have been huge parts of many people’s lives. They have grown so close to us that many consider them to be part of the family and yet we do not know as much as we could about their origins and why we grew so close to them to begin with. Studying these stray dogs in modern day society and their behavioral patterns will allow us to understand more about them.
I thought the article was very thorough. It covers many different aspects of why dogs are the way they are in society while also addressing the concern of their domestication with a wide variety of professional input. I thought the article could have used more information on the types of studies they could perform and what specific behavioral traits they could acquire from them. Overall I thought it was a very interesting piece to read.
Gorman, James. "The World Is Full of Dogs Without Collars." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
William Tague
ReplyDeleteGorman, James. "The World Is Full of Dogs Without Collars." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
Caroline, This article review was really interesting for me to read. I personally own a small dog and therefore care deeper for the breed of canines more than the average joe. The statistics that it takes 100 people to supply 7 dogs with enough garbage to survive wild was a very cool fact and something I didn't think that I would learn about today. How someone came up with that figure is beyond me but it does show a relatively small ratio of people in my opinion. You did a lot of good things with this article beside pull me into a really fun topic. First I loved the constant reference to the main source of information, Coppinger. It shows you are credible and helps cite your information. Besides also having a continued stream of facts with analysis, I think you wrote your relevance paragraph very well. My Aunt, a historian at Brown, wrote a book on the history of pets and it is relevant for the same reasons. We want to help our dogs out in the best way possible and understand their dependence on us. I think you could have improved however in a few spots although they are minor. I hope for one you could have gone into why you thought the article was interesting yourself. However what really got me is the “surefire solution” to less dogs on the streets that you hint at but completely leave us hanging on as you end your piece. Anyway very interesting and great article. Wonderful job.
Caroline,
ReplyDeleteI loved your review for a number of reasons. First, you had an intriguing hook to start off your review. By saying, “Three-quarters of the billion dogs on the planet are not pets,” you really caught my attention with this astounding fact, making me want to find out more about the world’s dog population. Another area I thought you did really well in was keeping your review clear and concise. One specific spot that I thought you presented especially clearly was the part in which you discussed how a large population of dogs can be supported with a sufficient amount of garbage. Here, you said, “The number of dogs that can survive in a city or a neighborhood or at a dump is determined by the available garbage. The Coppingers calculated that in the tropics it takes about 100 people to produce enough garbage to support seven free-living dogs.” This is very clear, and it provides a nice example of the ratio of people to garbage to dogs in the tropics. One last thing I liked about your article was the imagery you used to paint a picture of these dogs for the reader. For instance, at one point in your review, you wrote, “They are called village dogs, street dogs and free-breeding dogs, among other things, and they haunt the garbage dumps and neighborhoods of most of the world.” In this detailed description, you gave me a vivid image of what these shaggy, stray dogs looked like and where they lived. Overall, your review was amazing.
While there were countless things I liked about your review, you also had some room for improvement. One thing I didn’t like about your review was that you did not go into how or where the author gained some of these unbelievable statistics. For example, at one point, you said that “ there are about a billion dogs on Earth, according to some estimates.” When I read this I was confused about what these “estimates” were, who came up with them, and how they did it. I think you should have clarified the sources of your statistics to make them more credible. Another reason I didn’t like your review was because I found that some of the so-called facts that you presented were not facts but actually opinions I did not agree with. For instance, in your review, you used the phrase “Sometimes they are adopted by people. But really, Dr. Coppinger says, it is the dogs who adopt humans.” I simply do not agree with this and found it devalued some of the other parts of you review. To fix this, I would have presented ideas like this one in an opinionated matter, instead of matter-of-factly. Other than these two reasons, your review was spot-on.
This review was quite informative, and it did a wonderful job presenting the story of stray dogs on our planet. Because of this, I am now able to understand just how many stray dogs inhabit our planet and how they continue to survive. The reason I chose this article review out of all the others is because of its catchy title. When I saw the title "The World Is Full of Dogs Without Collars," I was immediately hooked. I personally like dogs a lot and had to learn more about just how full our world is with them. This review also made me consider my own dog and how she can be compared to dogs around the world. I now may think twice about what other dogs eat when I feed mine her luxurious dog food. This review has changed the way I look and think about my dog and dogs as a whole forever.
Caroline’s article review had many great aspects that made it effective. Firstly, she cited the opinions of scientists such as Dr. Coppinger, which added credibility to her summary. It gave more specificity and clarity to the scientist’s argument. Her summary overall was very concise and easy to understand. She did not use overly difficult vocabulary and showed multiple views about the topic of canine domestication, which was very informative. Lastly, her criticism of the article in the last paragraph showed effective analysis and helped me look at the article in a way that I had not considered before.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the article review was very informative, there are two improvements that can be made. Firstly, more information about the type of data and research that the scientists based their different opinions would have been very interesting. Adding this information would have furthered my understanding of the issue at hand. I would have also liked to hear more about the implications and effects of the high number of street dogs that roam the world. It would have been interesting to hear in the summary about how the high number of stray dogs affect the environment and the ecosystems that they exist in.
Reading Caroline’s article review was very interesting and I enjoyed how thorough it was. I chose to read this review because dogs are my favorite animals, so naturally I wanted to read about them. Knowing about the number of stray dogs in the world and how they were domesticated has changed my understanding of a lot of people keep dogs as their pet. I was able to better understand the origins of how keeping dogs as pet came to be a common practice through this review. It also made me reflect on how my dog, who was a rescue dog, survived while he did not have have a home.
Caroline, I really enjoyed your review of the article “The World is Full of Dogs Without Collars.” There were a few things that stood out. One, I really liked your opening sentence: “Three-quarters of the billion dogs on the planet are not pets.” This hook was interesting and made me want to read more. Two, it was nice how you cited information from Coppinger, because it made your review stronger and more credible. Three, I liked your summary of the article. It was concise and straight to the point, and was easy to read.
ReplyDeleteAlthough your review was great, there are a few things you could do to make it even better. One, I wish you went more into depth about some of the statistics you mentioned. You talk about them, and it would have been nice to understand their importance. Two, I would have liked to read more about the effect of having such a high number of dogs on the street has on the environment and society.
I chose to read your article, because like many others, my family owns a dog. I was interested to hear about how dogs have become household pets. It’s amazing to see how many dogs are left on the street.
Caroline,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did an excellent job with your review. Though I am not a dog owner, your introduction immediately pulled me in, and I believe that was a strength of your review. It also immediately connected your topic to behavior -- something we had recently studied: specifically domesticated populations compared to non domesticated populations. Another strong point of your review was your clarity. Explanations were clear and conscience as to introduce just the right amount of information. Lastly, I thought that you effectively explained multiple views on canine domestication. This proved to further increase my interest in your topic.
There a few small areas in which your review could have been strengthened. The larger of the two is that I feel you should have analyzed the source of the data the scientists collected. Analyzing any possible bias in the data collection would further improve your authority as an author. Secondly, I feel you could have further explained your “surefire” solution.
Again, I thought you did an excellent job with your review. One specific thing I learned from your review is that the population capacity for canines in an area is determined by the available garbage.
Work Cited:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/science/the-world-is-full-of-dogswithout-collars.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
Gorman, James. "The World Is Full of Dogs Without Collars." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
I read Caroline’s review of the article “The World Is Full of Dogs Without Collars.” Caroline started out the review with an interesting statement that drew the article in saying, “Three-quarters of the billion dogs on the planet are not pets.” Usually when people think of dogs they think of pets, and not stray dogs that fend for their food. She also discussed possible causes for the domestication of dogs. Some scientists think dogs did it naturally when they started hanging out around humans waiting for leftover food. Caroline provided alternatives to this argument. She including interesting facts statistics from the article as well, for example one hundred people in a tropical environment produce enough garbage to feed seven dogs.
ReplyDeleteIt would have liked to know the implication that stray dogs have. Caroline referenced the documentary Killing Coyote, and I wonder if people in cities run into similar problems with stray dogs that Westerners have with coyotes. I also would have liked to known about how data was collected about dogs, and where the majority of stray dogs are.
I did not know prior to reading this article that three-quarters of all dogs are not pets. I read this review because I wondered where all these dogs live because in the US you do not see that many stray dogs.
This article review drew my attention because I have a dog and am trying to adopt another dog. It is sad to read about how many dogs live on the streets and rely on garbage from humans in order to survive. I find it very interesting that it takes about one hundred people to feed seven dogs living on the streets. I had no idea that so many dogs live on the streets and you really informed me well on what the article discussed. Areas that I think you could have improved on are being more clear and descriptive about where the author of this article receive his/her’s information. For example, at one point you stated, “But there are about a billion dogs on Earth, according to some estimates,” this information is not specific and is a little confusing for the reader. It also makes your review less credible. It would have also been nice to have more information about the problems and causes of having so many dogs left out on the streets. This review gave me a clearer understanding of how dogs became domesticated and information about stray dogs roaming the streets of the world. This review was very informative and clear.
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