#131: Descended From Wolves

The Story Behind Descended From Wolves

Illustrated by EEK.

Dog breeding is an interesting thing. It is quite the process that has been refined over the years. However, the results, sometimes aren’t as perfect as we’d like. While some dogs have been bred into beautiful, elegant canines, some of their puppy brothers and sisters: not-so-much.

Sadly, some breeding has resulted in entire breeds of dogs with serious health issues. This is a shame because the aesthetic of a living creature shouldn’t be more important than its well-being. I say this as an owner of two - beautiful - pugs.

Dog breeding over the years has created a few biological headaches. Whether by lack of caring, demand or sheer laziness, dogs have ended up being bred with, for all intents and purposes, their cousins. A study by the Imperial College of London showed that 10,000 pugs had the same genetics as just 50 dogs; 20,000 boxers looked like only 70; and 120,000 Rough Collie dogs looked in genetic terms like a population of about 50. Basically a whole lot of dogs are all swimming in the same gene pool, they’re all just splish-splashing around together in - I wouldn’t even call it a gene pool at that point, more like a gene puddle. This is how puppers are born with smooshed noses, curly tails, shorts legs, and floppy ears.

Plain Text Description of Descended From Wolves

An old pug sits in a rocking chair with two pups at his feet. One pup is asleep. The old pug says, "Your great-great-great grandfather was a wolf!". The other pup exclaims, "Wow! We descended from wolves?" In a second panel, a dog stands majestically on a cliff looking over his domain while the moon hangs overhead - the dog has a wolf's body, a pug's face, and wags its tail furiously. The dog is labeled, "Derp."