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comment by RicePaddy
RicePaddy  ·  3153 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Perhaps the most unnatural fruit: watermelons

It's pretty incredible how much people can influence animals/plants through selective breeding.

I remember seeing a video about how dog breeds have changed over time. I can't find it right now, but as an example, here's what a French Bulldog looked like ~100 years ago

compared to what they look like now





Elisza  ·  3153 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The doggy looks like he ran into a wall nose first! I suppose the same happened to most dog species were domesticated and bred for a purpose, especially recently right? Why weren't cats bred to hunt more effectively or become more 'dog' like?

RicePaddy  ·  3153 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's actually really sad. Dogs began to be bred for aesthetics rather than for a certain purpose and now a lot of pedigree dogs have huge health problems :(. Here's the documentary I was referring to.

As for the whole cat thing, I have no idea. I remember reading somewhere about the way cats being domesticated being very different to how dogs were. The gist of it was that dogs were domesticated for hunting/security, etc. where cats were just handy to have around to keep mice down. As a result, dogs became more dependent on humans (which is why they seem love us so much), and cats have more of a "meh" approach to humans.

If someone on Hubski studies animals or just happens to have more insight, that'd be awesome!

tacocat  ·  3152 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Dogs are naturally more social than cats. Cats form groups to a degree but dogs have a hierarchical pack structure that makes them fit into human life more easily. That's why cats are assholes. Their instinct is not to please the alpha in the way a dog derives pleasure from adhering to its position in the hierarchy. This was a ridiculous point of contention in a relationship once. And I'm right goddammit. Dogs are better because they're capable of love! Fuck you Jessica! (/My little John Oliver style tantrum.)

iza  ·  3152 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I was just reading about this earlier: 100 Years of Breed “Improvement” (via r/TrueReddit)