Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets. Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado Boulder. His books include Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do.
They applied the “Page 99 Test” to their new book, A Dog's World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World without Humans, and reported the following:
Page 99 of A Dog’s World places us in the middle of a discussion about the use of space by dogs. The ways in which animals use space—whether they will stay put, travel, mark or defend territory, and share resources within a given area—is of keen interest to biologists trying to understand social behavior. It was also of keen interest to us, in trying to make predictions about how dogs will do without humans. In our current world, use of space by dogs is highly constrained by the presence and activities of humans. We constrain dogs not only quite literally, with leashes and collars and walls and fences, but also in many less obvious ways, by dominating landscapes and by creating landscapes of fear and opportunity. If humans disappear, the type and amount of available space for dogs will radically shift. We review the research on space use.Visit Jessica Pierce's website and Marc Bekoff's website.
Page 99 is a perfect microcosm of the book. We provide some science-driven predictions about what the lives of posthuman dogs might be like, suggesting that their patterns of behavior will change in complex and interlinked ways. For example, use of space will, among other things, be influenced by food (how much and what types of prey are available, where food is located), by morphology (how big or small dogs are and with what sized friends and foe are sharing space), by social structure (whether dogs are living on their own or as part of a group or pack) and by the presence of other animals with whom they might cooperate, compete or coexist, what we call the 3 C's.
The Page 99 Test: Wild Justice.
--Marshal Zeringue
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