Evolution

Evolution

In 2007 we began to plan a system of support for Aniplant’s regular weekend spay-neuter clinics. One of the first assumptions I needed to make was the average size of the animals to be neutered. I figured a good sized US cat might weigh over 10 pounds, and dogs at home surely average between 20 and 30 pounds. But I had already noticed that the average Cuban dog is nowhere near 20 pounds. More like 15 pounds, I thought, and we used that weight to estimate the amount of Ketamine we would need per animal for anesthesia.

In succeeding years it has become clear the average dog is even less than 15 pounds as each order of Ketamine seems to go farther than we planned. Why are Cuba’s dogs so much smaller than those in the US?

Well, my engineering training has given me a healthy respect for science, yet I’m ill-disposed to engage in the war of words between religion and science about how everything came to be. Still, I must say Cuba’s small dogs are the result of an evolutionary process. Now before any of you write to take issue with that idea, please hear me out.

Cuba was part of the abundant western world until January 1959, when Castro’s revolution took over. In 1959 with 71% of Cuban businesses owned by the US, Cuba then mirrored our own 20th century success. But very shortly after the
Castro takeover, a schism developed between the US and Cuban governments. These differences rapidly led to the nationalization of US-owned businesses in Cuba and soon also to Cuba’s gravitating into the communist sphere (the only other option).

From the beginning, Cuban people fell onto hard times. Getting enough to eat was a daily problem, not always suitably solved. Pet dogs and cats, used to eating scraps from the family table, began to know the pangs of hunger on a regular basis. You might say, well OK, but 50 years is a short time to see an evolutionary change. And I’d agree with you if we were talking about people, but among dogs and cats, 50 years can easily be 50 generations. For a human comparison, 50 generations is about 1000 years, and surely we’ve seen many evolutionary changes in people in the last 1000 years. For example, the average person’s height and weight have increased as food became more abundant. The lifespan has increased due to modern sanitation and, to a lesser extent, due to modern medicine.

So 50 generations of too little food to eat shows up first in dogs and cats as it has done in Cuba. No doubt John Scopes and Charles Darwin would embrace my evolutionary canine weight theory while William Jennings Bryan would castigate me roundly.

Another side to this discussion is the tameness and near-symbiotic relationship between humans and dogs. That too came from evolutionary selection, as the wolves who had less fear of humans came to live nearer them, ate their leftovers, and gradually took up joint endeavors like sheep herding, protecting homes, etc.

And when Peachy, my beautiful rescued Golden Doodle barks at strangers, I can sense traces of ancient wolves standing guard in my home, and I can thank the process of natural selection.

Les Inglis