Look, humans have done it, under extreme circumstances. They’ve resorted to cannibalism. One of the results of starvation is an impairment of cognitive function, so who’s to say you wouldn’t do it, too? And dogs are far closer to the wolves they evolved from, in terms of the passage of time, than humans are to our apelike ancestors. The trip back to that former wild state, what we would call genetic recidivism, is much shorter for a dog than it is for a human. (Most humans, that is.) It shouldn’t be too surprising, then, that a 65-year-old Arkansas animal hoarder, upon her death back in August, was eaten by her “pets.” It’s gruesome, yes, but it’s understandable, even predictable.
Authorities are now euthanizing those dogs—“euthanizing” being a nice way of saying they are shooting, trapping or poisoning them. It’s sad, but it is a matter of public safety. The dogs are reported as being aggressive, and now that they have come to equate humans as a potential food source, it isn’t at all inconceivable that they could become predatory “Now that they’ve got a taste for blood,” as my grandfather would have said. There were over fifty inbred dogs found at the scene, and animal control authorities have yet to eradicate them all. Didn’t I see a movie that started out this way . . . ?