A Message from a Guildie

I don't get it? o.O

Here's an example:

 Contains a little vulgarity

Two men were sitting in a plane, waiting for it to take off to their destination. One of the men was working on a crossword puzzle from the newspaper, and seemed to be contemplating a dilemma.

Finally, after a long while, the man working on the crossword puzzle asked the other man, "Hey, can you help me?"

"Sure, I'm good at crossword puzzles."

"22 across, the clue is 'woman'. The word has four letters, with a 'u' and 'n' in the middle."

The guy who was good at crossword puzzles took a moment to think, then said, "Aunt."

"Oh, thank you very much! That fits perfectly with 5 down."

The guy who provided the answer couldn't imagine what the other word was, so he peeked at the man's crossword puzzle. 5 down was "Thingamabob", while 22 across was "plum".

Erm, dogsruleu44 cussed at me after I posted what I wrote to the guild BBS.

The dogs wouldn't even be in Puerto Rico if humans didn't bring them there. It is our fault, so that's why people feel obligated to fix it. We didn't put the Zebras in Africa, that's where they belong and they are suited to that environment. These dogs are not suited to their environment, they don't belong there, and many of them were likely bred for certain purposes that makes them especially unfit. I mean, I have a dachshund, and it's a great dog, but let's face it: If humans hadn't intervened in their breeding, no dog would look like that. If all the humans disappeared, you can bet that Dachshunds, Chihuahuas, poodles, and so on would go extinct not long after. Some dogs, like huskies, would probably survive, but most of the dog breeds would die out.

We caused the mess, we must clean it up.

There are many examples of mutualism in the wild. Wikipedia shows some very good examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutualism

 Wikipedia

...for example mycorrhizal associations between plant roots and fungi, with the plant providing carbohydrates to the fungus in return for primarily phosphate but also nitrogenous compounds. Other examples include rhizobia bacteria which fix nitrogen for leguminous plants (family Fabaceae) in return for energy-containing carbohydrates[5].

...for example pollination in which nectar or pollen (food resources) are traded for pollen dispersal (a service) or ant protection of aphids, where the aphids trade sugar-rich honeydew (a by-product of their mode of feeding on plant sap) in return for defense against predators such as ladybird beetles.

...One example is the relationship between sea anemones and anemonefish in the family Pomacentridae: the anemones provide the fish with protection from predators (which cannot tolerate the stings of the anemone's tentacles) and the fish defend the anemones against butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae) which eat anemones.

In the Neotropics, the ant, Myrmelachista schumanni makes its nest in special cavities on the Duroia hirsute tree. The ant protects the tree with such vehemence that any saplings in the vicinity belonging to other species are killed with formic acid. This selective gardening can be so aggressive that small areas of the rainforest are dominated by Duroia hirsute. These peculiar patches are known by local people as "devil's gardens".[8]

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Here is a history of how dogs came to be based on my understanding:

Dogs did not start out as dogs in the past. In primitive times there were only wolves. The human inhabitants would have a symbiotic relationship with the wolves that would allow for their domestication.

Maybe humans and wolves hunted the same food, but the human only ate part of the foods. Thus, the wolves would eat the portion of the food left behind. Perhaps it was the other way around, the wolves would hunt for food and the humans would eat their leftovers. Whatever the cause, the two eventually fell into a mutualistic relationship that could not be reversed.

Over years of evolution, the wolves became more tame, that is, the ones that stayed dependent on the humans are the ones that evolved to be more docile, each successive generation more passive than the next. Their appearance changed as well, since they no longer needed to hunt, their sharp teeth gradually evolved to become blunt.


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You can't blame evolution on humans. Other animals, as given in the wikipedia article, pretty much cause the same problems, they cause their symbiotic partners to evolve with them. Also, who's to say that if people did not form symbiotic relationships with dogs that today there would only be wolves and most of them extinct?

Why should we place the blame on ourselves for an accident of nature? Why should we claim credit for their evolution? Why should we be obligated to "fix" (if it is such a problem) their evolutionary line when survival of the species is the goal? Now that we no longer need dogs to survive, why not give them a chance to evolve to their evolutionary height? Again, why must we intervene with them? Have humans evolved to become weak by developing a "hindering" consciousness?