DOGS AND THE RIGHTS OF HUMANS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

            There is a very famous book (which our famous editor of the Amandala) will no doubt be very familiar with. This book is entitled Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Perhaps many have failed to notice that this book was attentive to the plight of dogs, which the author used both literally and figuratively to underscore the inhumanity of slavery. The slave George Harris is ordered by a cruel master to kill his pet dog, which the master does not want to go to the expense of keeping. When George refuses and is whipped for his disobedience, the master kills the dog himself. Reporting this in sorrow to his wife, Eliza, George reminds her of his own lack of legal standing. “Don’t you know a slave can’t be married? There is no law in the country for that.”  Deprived of his beloved dog and about to be forcibly separated by the same master from his wife, George sets out for Canada in search of freedom. Later in the novel, when another master by name of Augustine St. Clare, buys the slave girl Topsy and presents her to his cousin Ophelia for “training,” the offhand tone of his reference is chilling  and its equation of slave and pet unmistakable: “ “ `Here, Topsy,` he added, giving a whistle, as a man would to call the attention of a dog, ‘give us a song, now, and show us some of your dancing.’” The slave was property; the slave had no human rights; the slave was treated, quite literally, like a dog.

            Keep THAT in mind the next time you see someone mistreating a dog.