Dingoes and strays as default dogs

A sort of thought that weirds some people out but to put it parsimoniously, it’s not entirely owners’ fault why their pets stray even if that does influence it for the worse. It can also be attributed to that they can’t always afford or easily find things needed to keep them from straying, especially if these are that far away. That’s even the case in Russia and Australia (and China’s Tibet) where they’re that deserted. (China might not remain as the world’s populous country anymore.)

It also gets complicated by religious beliefs and/or societal customs being dogs are dirty or something to that effect. It’s not that they don’t cherish their dogs but only to a certain point where it’s needed to let them out as to not literally deal with their crap often. (Same for cats to some extent.) In some settings, simply walking your dog to nature reserves can be just a problematic especially if owners aren’t careful.

(I’ve read numerous reports of dogs in Europe killing wildlife like deer at will.)

It also gets complicated by the ecologies pets inhabit. This is where Andrei Poyarkov made his observations. You have owned dogs straying at will especially in or near compounds, villages, forests and farms. Then you have owned dogs made to guard public premises. Then you’ve got street dogs and truly feral dogs. Then there comes the truly domesticated ones.

Not to mention that in some cases, if dogs ever do get trained to hunt at all it’s often done by starving them (same for cats), drugging them and/or socialising them to other dogs. Even if the idea that dogs being commensal does provoke people, factors like ecology, economy, geography and ownership practises can encourage this for better or worse.

Mediterranean

I think that’s originally used to refer to places in the Mediterranean Sea like parts of France, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and much of the Iberian peninsula. (I say parts of Italy as it’s characterised by several mountain ranges like the Alps, Dolomites and Apennines where the climates there are considerably cooler, if rainier to boot.) The Mediterranean climates are characterised by fairly warm, dry summers and wet winters. This isn’t just a European feature but also found in parts of Africa and North America to an extent.

It’s also parsimonious to suggest that the stereotypical Mediterranean region’s often Latin and though that’s partly true, let’s not forget how far the Slavs have expanded which not only encompasses temperate and continental areas like Poland and Russia (where in St Petersburg, a combination of urban heat island effect and maritime proximity enables some parts of that city to have milder, if rainier climates) but also parts near the Mediterranean Sea.

Greece is also in the Mediterranean and there’s a substantial number of them in Russia and Turkey, the latter also has areas with Mediterranean and recently recognised as part of the European Union. (Historically parts of Turkey belonged to Greece and vice versa so.)

Spain and Italy

They’re sometimes considered interchangeable but there are differences. Spain, for all its Catalonia related troubles, is actually doing well from recovering and to some, it’s way more gay friendly than Italy is. Italy at some point was richer than Spain but due to economic troubles and that Spain recovered, it got reversed. At this point Portugal, Spain and Ireland practically got out of the PIGSty.

Thus leaving both Italy and Greece behind despite the two being a big influence on Western European civilisation. Not to mention both France and Spain got ahead of Italy when it comes to colonising overseas nations. So by the time Italy and Germany got there they’re left with table scraps. (Cameroon’s originally a German colony but quickly became French and British, hence why Cameroon’s both Anglophone and Francophone.)

It can be argued that the only European country that somewhat colonised Ethiopia or at least close to it (influencing it and leaving behind a diaspora), albeit retroactively and cordially so is Turkey. When a Muslim country managed to establish successful ties with Ethiopia whilst a Catholic European peninsula’s nothing more than an extension of the greater Holy Roman Empire, that’s saying.

(Though it could be that the HRE empire and its successor the Austrian Empire already had a lot of land in Europe so they needn’t to expand much outside of it until recently and even then that’s brief.)

Another real difference’s geographical. Though both are peninsulas, Italy’s literally a narrower strip of land whilst Spain encompasses much of the Iberian peninsula and that Spain got united ahead of Italy. Italy, again’s practically the southernmost extension of the Holy Roman Empire for a considerable amount of time and even that’s usually confined to most of Northern Italy. (Lombardy and Veneto went to the Austrian Empire.)

Admittedly I don’t know much about Spain but to some it does much better on Italy when it comes to LGBT rights and in a sense it’s more ahead of the latter.

Central Italy

Right between Northern/Alpine Italy proper (the one with Dolomites and really close to German, Austrian, Slovenian, French and Swiss borders) and Southern Italy. These nearly and roughly correspond to the Italian states and fiefdoms that swore allegiance to the Holy Roman Empire and eventually the Austrian Empire for Lombardy and Veneto (hence why there are German speaking towns there like Bolzano and Ticino used to be part of the Duchy of Milan), the Papal States and Kingdom of Naples and Piedmont.

Could be wrong about the latter. But it still does fit neatly with history and geography. Especially with Northern Italy being that close to Austria and Switzerland that not only there’s a substantial Italian community in Switzerland (as well as an Italian-speaking community given Ticino used to be part of the Duchy of Milan) but there are also those who wear lederhosen, German speakers in Montefalcone and Bolzano and a shared region between Austria and Italy (when it comes to both Tyrols).

So far only the Republic of Venice was generally considered separate, having encompassed parts of Croatia and Slovenia (I might be misremembering) until succumbing to Austrian rule before being integrated into Italy proper (again as it had been in ancient times). Barring Tuscany (and a few others), much of Central Italy were part of the Papal States including Umbria and Emilia-Romagna.

The biggest star of Central Italy’s inevitably Tuscany. Its main attraction in turn being Florence which had a substantial banking industry during the Medieval and Early Modern Periods. That city had been one of the most decadent, so much so it got chastised by the likes of Dante Alighieri and Girolamo Savonarola. The former having to fled to Verona instead.

I’ve yet to go to Italy (as well as Japan and Germany for that matter) but doing research and hanging out at Japanese, Italian and German language websites are enough to give me an insight into those countries in advance.

Scavenging and hunting around

I’m starting to think that the Coppingers’ idea about dogs being self-domesticated through scavenging starts to make a lot of sense not only in curious ownership practises where even owned dogs get deliberately excluded for reasons like bothering visitors and defecation (moreso when toilets aren’t around).

I know this from experience as well as hunting dogs being deliberately starved, socialised to other dogs or drugged to hunt animals as well as hunting animals themselves to the chagrin of their owners and being ineffective in some hunts depending on community. But also ecology where dogs (and cats) likelier stray in or near compounds, villages and farms.

As well as lack of certain resources needed to sterilise them and keep them from straying, especially if what’s needed’s not always readily available and may even be remote. Same for finding more public toilets and graveyards to exclude something with. Not to mention austerity where either the government cracks down on it.

Or certain social classes are excluded from the very resources needed like housing and vaccination. Rich people in Europe and India have the resources to regulate their pets whilst poorer people sometimes become powerless. As these are still issues in India (and other places), it’s inevitable that stray dogs occur anyways.

(Even worse still that India’s holiest river, the Ganges, also gets used for defecation and burying the dead which inevitably attracts dogs to it.)

It might be due to the animals’ tendencies like curiosity, mating and stuff. But it’s also affected by ecology, economy and geography (especially in relation to human habituation). If dingoes are believed to be dogs gone wild, it’s likelier that due to Australia being mostly covered by deserts as well as Aboriginals staying in camps, such dogs would stray anyways.

And that it can be hard to restrain them at all if the resources needed aren’t readily available and accessible to them. There’s even the argument that dingoes may’ve wiped out the Tasmanian tigers and devils on mainland Australia, which makes sense if dingoes were introduced from Asia to there and that there were no native placental mammals until people and dogs came.

Canine predation on livestock’s still an issue in Australia as it’s elsewhere. In cases like Indian Himalayas, Chinese Tibet, Russia and Australia stray dogs proliferate due to ecology, ownership practises, economy and geography where in there, it can be hard to restrain them if/when vets and stores are hard to come by. As if these factors are enough to encourage degrees of predation and commensalism in cats and dogs.

(Let’s not forget that canine predation’s entirely forgotten in places like Cameroon and the Philippines where there’s the threat of canine predation on guinea pigs and sea turtles and that my own dogs have killed lizards and frogs.)

Cautious of the Coppingers

Though I do find the Coppingers’ assumptions half wrong, let’s not forget that they extensively studied stray dogs a lot to base these after. I’m into that as well as having personally observed such characters before and I understand partly where they’re coming from. I suspect some dog owners take issue with it, sometimes even projecting their own ignorance onto it.

Never mind that in reality a combination of dubious ownership practises, cultural attitudes, ecology, warfare, lack of both affordability and availability (for what’s needed) and geography continue their existence (same for cats) I suspect it’s especially true for any country with remote villages, countrysides and mountains/areas in general with it. Particularly so for China, India, Russia and Australia.

(Save for Australia, these three share a border with each other and other places like Nepal, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Thailand, Laos, Poland, Ukraine, Mongolia and Vietnam.)

Maybe not always exactly the case but often is so when it comes to remote locales and/or inhospitable lands, making it harder to take pets to vets and find stores to buy items to restrain them with. It can be the animals’ own tendencies as well as owners but not when other factors complicate this, thus allowing a degree of commensalism to exist and persist as sometimes there’s nothing they can do about it.

Or if they do but to a degree as much as they can manage it through laws and sterilisations.

Coppingers on strays again

I commonly suspect that the likes of Retrieverman don’t entirely agree with the Coppingers if because the idea of dogs being self-domesticated sort of clashes with their preconceptions. If they could accept dogs being domesticated from wolves, they should also accept dogs being self-domesticated wolves especially if they enjoy hanging out at rubbish sites which’s still the case as the Coppingers pointed out. I’d even argue that the real reason for their continued existence (same for cats) is actually more much complicated.

You’ve got dubious ownership practises where dogs are even made to stay outside of the house to avoid having to literally deal with their crap a lot (same for cats to some degree), owners not bothering to train or sterilise them (even if they did, vets and stores don’t come cheap and may even be that geographically remote) and sometimes people who do train dogs to hunt may either deliberately starve them (same for cats), drug them or have them socialised to other dogs.

Then you’ve got ecology where the places stray cats and dogs occur are usually or originate in the countryside often (near) farms, villages, forests (predation) and compounds. Sometimes they wander looking for mates among others. They may not necessarily stray per say but wander to a degree anyways. I’ve even witnessed it when entering my relatives’ compound before.

Other factors include religion (cats and dogs being associated with filth and witchcraft), classism (India’s got a caste system) and geography (vets and stores aren’t always readily accessible and moreso if it’s that inhospitable like China’s Tibet, any remote mountain or village, or Russian tundra). This might explain why stray dogs not only persist but grew exponentially in Tibet and why they persist in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Australia.

Not to mention that it can be hard to dump corpses and faeces with, if there’s not much land to bury the dead and make toilets with (moreso if they’re not readily available or affordable, same reason why some people can’t find homes in general). It’s likely wolves became scavenging dogs through eating human corpses and faeces as child and maternal mortality rates, coupled with lack of toilets and better medicine were far higher before.

It even gets exacerbated by warfare where it makes it harder to take care of pets. If Marawi and the like are any indication, pets inevitably stray as others are rendered powerless. Any combination of these to a degree (it often occurs like this) encourage commensalism. Not always the case but to whatever extent, enough to prove Coppingers’ theory partly correct as they make mistakes.

Coppingers and Strays

I somehow largely suspect why Retrieverman got mad at the Coppingers if because the only dogs he has the most experience with and interest in are owned purebreds. There are stray purebreds and owned mongrels but mongrels almost always go hand in hand with strays, thus effectively deconstructing the problem with purebreds. Not to mention several continental European countries still have mongrels (a substantial percentage at that) and stray dogs (though that’s likelier to be a rural phenomenon now).

The Coppingers certainly made mistakes but because they bothered to extensively study stray dog ecology, I won’t be surprised if they’re far more obsessed with stray dogs than he is. Enough to prove their opinion right. (There are even other dog bloggers who think he doesn’t really have much experience with dogs and Coppingers’ research on stray dogs prove theirs right in a way.)

I’d even go on arguing that the varying degree of socialisation to humans depending on their ecology (same for cats to some degree) helps explain variety in dog breeds if you believe Russian dog studies. While I don’t entirely agree with the Coppingers either, being into it myself I understand partly where they’re coming from. I’d even argue that stray cats and dogs exist due to far more numerous and complicated reasons.

Not just bad ownership practises but also economical (can’t afford things like fences, vets and leashes to minimise this, moreso if these are also inaccessible or worsened by classism as in India), geography (inaccessibility again) and ecology (often taking place in or near farms, countrysides, villages and compounds). Whilst not necessarily always the case, depending on species and even individuals of said species, it can account for why it persists.

I’ve been to my relatives’ compound where I’ve seen my cousins’ dogs wander to my grandma’s house and balcony. They’re not strays per say but given it’s in a close knit locale or anywhere near a farm (like with cats and sometimes dogs in my neighbourhood) some degree of straying/wandering occurs anyways. Keep in mind that this isn’t always the case but often is so.

Also mongrels often go wherever strays go. Not necessarily a nice solution but more of an inevitable byproduct that’s now more of a rural phenomenon these days. Though there are also efforts to stop straying and same for cats.

Differences between Sweden and Denmark

I think that’s more of a question of geography especially for newcomers and those curious about them at first. While both of them are peninsulas, Sweden’s much bigger sharing a border with both Norway to the left and Finland to the right but only with the latter being a former Swedish colony/partner (Denmark practically colonised Norway, Faroes and Greenland). Sweden’s also got a larger population but since Denmark’s much smaller, it’s more densely populated.

Denmark’s both geographically and to some extent, historically and culturally closer to the rest of Europe, especially Germany and the Netherlands which with the former, Schleswig-Holstein’s formerly part of Denmark. Not to mention the latter two have Frisians as one of their long-standing ethnic minorities. In Sweden, Norway and Finland Samis take their place.

On a more trivial note, Denmark begat Lego and Sweden begat Ikea. (The closest Finnish equivalent would be the Moomin series.)

Differences between Russia and Poland

One I might know less about if because I haven’t bothered researching much on what goes on in Poland. Even though realistically it’s relatively easier to type Polish words without needing a special programme like you have with Russian as the former uses Roman orthography rather than Cyrillic. The biggest differences to me are that Russia’s got more landmass than Poland does but is relatively less densely populated due to the tundra east.

From what I remember about statistics, Poland has a higher rate of dog ownership compared to Russia for reasons. The historical longstanding ethnic minorities in Poland are Ukrainians (Ukraine’s Poland’s neighbour but also has more cat owners as I remember), Belarusians (similar), Jews and Lithuanians. Russia’s got significantly more by the virtue of acquiring more territory at some point.

These include Yakut, Evenks, Tatars, Samis, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Armenians, Nenets, Udmurts, Koryaks and Mongols. This helps when many of them came from the former Soviet Union. Again like I said with Switzerland and Germany, history and geography (or language) helps shape similarities and differences between places.

In addition to religion and the like.