Dog Poo
In the beginning, we were prey. Soft bodies, slow, no claws or fangs, easy prey. We hid, scampered, scavenged, always moving, always on the lookout. Our eyes were our only decent asset, capable of detecting movement over long distances. We could run for very long periods because our hides were so thin heat could escape easily. Our other asset was our collaborative nature. We built teams to accomplish what one could never. But still we were dumb prey. Over millennia we grew more complex. Speech developed, our opposing thumbs turned out to be very useful in handling tools, then for making them. We found that we could hunt larger prey with new weapons and tactics copied from the real predators. The Psilocybin laced mushrooms that grew from the plains herbivore scat accentuated our sight and hearing. We became excellent communicators and hunters. Protein intake and brain size increased in unison. One day a hunter came upon an abandoned litter of wolf pups and did something different. Instead of killing them off as competitors and eating them, stoned on the shrooms as he was, he felt overwhelming compassion for the pups and took them in and raised them. Life for humans would never be the same again. Dogs became an integral part of the human success story. They were everything we lacked. Teeth, fangs, hearing, smell, collaborative hunters like us, they gave us the upper hand and we were never afraid of the predators again (only each other!). Since that fateful day, dogs have had our back with un-conditional love, companionship and ever vigilant protection. Unfortunately, we have started the process of turning some of them into fashion accessories with psychological disorders. It is easy to anthropomorphise a dog. They exhibit love very similar to the way we do. However, dogs have a very different social order and need to be treated differently to humans to maintain a healthy psyche. A dog owner all my life, I have had great dogs by letting them BE dogs and making sure they respect the alpha in the pack, me. I would highly recommend reading “Whats your dog telling you” by Martin McKenna if you are having dog issues or are considering getting a dog. Communities that have banned dogs are ignoring the benefits that dogs can bring both to humans and to balancing out the lack of natural predators in our ecosystem. Wild dogs fill that vacuum. The on-leash mentality we have prescribed for our society often works against dogs natural ease of interaction and socialising with other dogs. We owe them our trust to socialise naturally, not impeded by lead and law. Dog poo is less digested than human poo because dogs have very short intestines. It can be hot composted but should not be used anywhere near food crops. It would be better dealt with using a worm farm or soldier fly larvae as they will eat through it entirely and leave clean castings.
