Ugly Puppies and Black Dogs: Darwinism in Companion Animals

A recent study examined the domestic dog's twist on evolutionary theory: Survival of the Cutest.

This study might not have proved Darwin's theory of evolution, but it makes a clear case about the ethics of breeding. As Dr. Chris Klingenberg, one of the biologists behind the study, says, "Domestic dogs are boldly going where no self respecting carnivore has ever gone before." In discussing why domestic dogs are a model species for studying natural selection, he adds:

"Domestic dogs don't live in the wild so they don't have to run after things and kill them — their food comes out of a tin and the toughest thing they'll ever have to chew is their owner's slippers. So they can get away with a lot of variation that would affect functions such as breathing and chewing and would therefore lead to their extinction."

Um, how do breeders justify creating an animal that couldn't survive on its own? Is Destruction of the Fittest the flipside of Survival of the Cutest?

Scientists have determined common factors that define cuteness — the big eyes and large forehead found in babies of most species. Psychologists have long thought that cuteness has the purpose of triggering the urge to nurture, so that parents care for helpless infants. But these criteria have been bred to extremes in some purebred dogs, such as the brachycephalic dogs whose short-nosed, large-eyed "cuteness" makes them prone to respiratory and eye problems. 

The biologists pointed out that many of the skull shapes of domestic dogs fall outside the range of what's found in nature: There's more of a difference between a Collie and a Pekingese (a breed whose skull shape has caused all kinds of health problems) than there is between a cat and a walrus.

In the purebred world, puppies who don't meet these breed standards — which I guess makes them "ugly" — are often culled, either by literally killing the rogue puppies or by spaying and neutering them as "pet quality" dogs to ensure they don't reproduce and pass on their "undesirable" genes — which are often biologically healthy traits that would make the dog less reliant on human protection.

In the world of animal adoption, there's also a kind of survival of the fittest. Black Dog Syndrome is the tendency of black cats and black or brindle dogs to get passed up by potential adopters. Shelters across the country have created special campaigns for the darker animals in their care to help them overcome this bias.

There are a lot of theories as to why Black Dog Syndrome happens. Some blame old, ingrained beliefs that black animals are aligned with evil forces, which is reinforced by the big, dark attack dogs often portrayed in movies. Some say it's much more basic and superficial, that it's harder to see dark animals in shelters and photographs, so they don't stand out when people come to adopt. No matter what the reason, it doesn't make any more sense as a criteria for survival than breeding just based on cuteness.

Photo credit: Stephanie Feldstein