Leaving the Wild: The Unnatural History of Dogs, Cats, Cows, and Horses

by Gavin Ehringer

Overview

A thought-provoking and surprising book that explores the ever-evolving relationship between humans and domesticated animals.

The domestication of animals changed the course of human history. But what are the consequences for these animals who have abandoned their wild existence in exchange for our care and protection? Domestication has proven to be a wildly successful survival strategy, but this success has not been without its drawbacks. A modern dairy cow’s daily energy output equals that of a Tour de France rider. Feral cats overpopulate urban areas. And our methods of breeding horses and dogs have resulted in debilitating and sometimes lethal genetic diseases. But these problems and more can be addressed, if we have the will and the compassion.

Human values and choices determine an animal’s lot in life even before he or she is born. Just as a sculptor’s hands shape clay, so human values shape our animals—for good and or evil. The little-examined, yet omnipresent act of breeding lies at the core of Gavin Ehringer’s eye-opening book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681776064
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	12/05/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Award-winning journalist Gavin Ehringer is a former cowboy, a horseman, and a dog trainer. He’s written for a wide range of animal publications, including Western Horseman, The Chronicle of the Horse, Dog Fancy, Dogster, and is the author of five animal-related books over a career that spans thirty years. He lives in Colorado Springs.
Award-winning journalist Gavin Ehringer is a former cowboy, a horseman, and a dog trainer. He's written for a wide range of animal publications, including Western Horseman, The Chronicle of the Horse, Dog Fancy, Dogster, and is the author of five animal-related books over a career that spans thirty years. He lives in Colorado Springs.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Dogs 1

1 A Wolf Among Men 3

2 The Generic Dog 14

3 The First Breeders 26

4 England Goes to the Dogs 36

5 A Breed is Born 54

6 Pity the Pit Bull 74

7 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie 96

Cats 115

8 Of Mice and Men (And Cats) 117

9 Cat Cult Culture 124

10 Putting the Evil in Medieval 135

11 Catching a Break 149

12 Life in the Great Indoors 155

13 Alley Cat Blues 166

14 Fancy Cats 185

Cows 195

15 The Cheeseburger: A Natural History 197

16 Sex and the Single Cow 202

17 Frankencattle? 213

18 Three Dairies, Act One: The Raw Deal 228

19 Three Dairies, Act Two: Cows in the Machine 240

20 Three Dairies, Act Three: Emerald Pastures 253

21 The Moo-Niverse 269

Horses 281

22 Life on a Horse Ranch 283

23 In the Beginning 289

24 Horses and Humans 294

25 When Horsemen Ruled the World 299

26 Arabians, From Breed to Greed 307

27 The All-American Horse 319

Conclusion 335

A Baker's Dozen Best Practices of Pet Animal Breeders 343

Acknowledgments 345

Index 347

Editorial Reviews

"Ehringer writes about the different ways dairy cattle are maintained, the 1980s craze for Arabian horses, the problem of feral-cat colonies, and the ongoing issues surrounding the dog known as the pit bull, fodder for Ehringer’s tracing of the part humans have played in the unnatural history of domestic animals."

Booklist (starred)

"Ehringer interweaves his extensive first-hand experiences of domestic animals with a fascinating account of their history, taking the reader right through to today's mix of sentiment and outright exploitation. Thought-provoking and controversial, this book pulls no punches in exposing the paradoxes implicit in our relationships with 21st century animals."

John Bradshaw

"Domestication is a two-edged sword. There’s no denying that many dogs, cats, and even horses live like royalty in our homes. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes the animals we love su er greatly. Leaving the Wild is a powerful entreaty to animal lovers everywhere to improve the lives of the animals in our care by adopting more compassionate breeding standards. I agree wholeheartedly."

Wendy Williams

"Anybody at all interested in the animals closest to us—dogs, cats, cows, and horses—will want to read Gavin Ehringer’s Leaving the Wild. In a romp that is part natural and social history, and part personal storytelling, Ehringer takes us from a story of a scientist who decided to clone cattle from a prime steak to how the internet fueled the millennial generation’s cat craze. A highly enjoyable read."

Peter Heller

"Through four case studies, Leaving the Wild reveals the extent to which humans over the millennia have drastically altered domesticated animals’ lives and created ethical quandaries that are now difficult to resolve. As a cowboy, horseman and dog trainer, Ehringer brings an engaging voice to his topic."

Washington Post

"Animal devotees will be eager to explore Ehringer’s interpretative research that blends a mixture of natural history, human history, personal experience and science. His engrossing study presents ways humans can set and maintain high ethical and moral standards for the breeding and care of our animal partners now and in the future."

Shelf Awareness

"Gavin Ehringer has written a lively and entertaining book on four of the species most commonly found living with humans: dogs, cats, cattle, and horses. No domesticated species has ever gone extinct, but the current state of domesticated animals is not wholly favorable, either. Ehringer has a good instinct for statistics as well as sharp observations that bring home the pitfalls and benefits of domestication."

Pat Shipman

"Humans have bred animals for centuries. It’s only in recent times that our motives, techniques, and results have come into serious question. Gavin Ehringer’s Leaving the Wild is a timely compendium of breeding as it spans various species, with suggestions for regaining much-needed balance in the breeder-animal relationship."

Kim Kavin

"Ehringer writes about the different ways dairy cattle are maintained, the 1980s craze for Arabian horses, the problem of feral-cat colonies, and the ongoing issues surrounding the dog known as the pit bull, fodder for Ehringer’s tracing of the part humans have played in the unnatural history of domestic animals."

Booklist

Through four case studies, Leaving the Wild reveals the extent to which humans over the millennia have drastically altered domesticated animals’ lives and created ethical quandaries that are now difficult to resolve. As a cowboy, horseman and dog trainer, Ehringer brings an engaging voice to his topic.

Washington Post

Ehringer writes about the different ways dairy cattle are maintained, the 1980s craze for Arabian horses, the problem of feral-cat colonies, and the ongoing issues surrounding the dog known as the pit bull, fodder for Ehringer’s tracing of the part humans have played in the unnatural history of domestic animals.

Booklist

11/01/2017
A longtime chronicler of the American West for magazines such as Western Horseman, Ehringer explores how dogs, cats, cows, and horses have fared under domestication and human association. He relates how this group of domesticates has adapted well to human "care, understanding, and love" but also documents examples of neglect and cruelty: homeless pets, dog fighting, the deleterious effects of inbreeding in dogs and horses, and inhumane factory farm conditions for cattle. Ehringer is a facile writer, but his approach to this topic is uneven. The section on dogs is considerably longer than that for any other domesticate. We learn much about Australian Shepherds because the author has been involved with this breed for decades, but his experience with cats is limited to semiwild barn cats. He discusses when, where, and how the domestication process began for cats, dogs, and horses yet provides no information about the domestication of cattle from the extinct aurochs. VERDICT Given these inconsistencies and the lack of cited sources, this title is recommended for those interested in a casual read. For a more thorough look at animal domestication, turn to Richard C. Francis's Domesticated.—Cynthia Lee Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Historical Soc., Flemington, NJ

Library Journal

2017-10-01
Colorado-based writer Ehringer (100 Best Ranch Vacations in North America, 2007, etc.) chronicles our changing relations—changes mostly not for the better—with the world of familiar animals.The author's travels among everyday animal species and their histories opens a touch sluggishly, with a story that has become commonplace: namely, the domestication of the dog out of the wolf, the latter a smart predator that found a new way of exploiting its environment by moving, with humans, into the newfangled villages of newfound agriculturalism. From there, however, the narrative picks up both speed and interest. Ehringer writes capably, for example, of the development of dog species, hinting at some political resistance in the mix as "royal kennel keepers smuggled puppies out of the castles to sell to commoners rather than give the inferior ones the blade or bludgeon." Inferior, perhaps; who knows how much better the queen of England's corgis are than your next-door neighbor's? One such species is the mixed-bag creation called the pit bull, more properly the bull & terrier, "less a breed than a type of dog," in this case bred to nefarious purposes for fighting—and that for human entertainment. Ehringer reports that, thanks to good education, the numbers of unwanted dogs in pounds and shelters are declining relative to the past; the challenge for future dog owners will be to find animals that have been humanely bred. Not necessarily so the cat population, cats being critters that evolved, writes the author, quite against their types, since cats in the wild "profoundly dislike and distrust people." Ehringer moves from cats to cows, writing that, though it's not their fault, there are too many cows to be sustainable. In the future, they're likely to be scarcer; indeed, after considering the fortunes of horses, he imagines a time "when grandparents fondly recall the days when animal food products were common."Solid, well-reported popular science for animal lovers.

Kirkus Reviews