Animal Insting

If you have a better memory than my mom does, you might remember that I wrote about New Guinea Singing Dogs last April.  And at that time, I told you there were hardly any singers left in the wild, and there weren't even all that many in captivity.

So that's why everyone was very shocked last month when it turned out that a man named Randy Hammond, who lives in Willow Hill, Pennsylvania, had 85 New Guinea Singing Dogs of his very own, right there on his property!  And the way the animal wardens found out about these dogs was because somebody heard them "singing," and phoned in a tip.

Mr. Hammond was charged with animal cruelty because he didn't have a license for his kennel, and also he didn't have a licenses and rabies shots for the dogs.  So now he owes $1,100 in fines.  He was keeping the dogs in pens outdoors, but the conditions were getting crowded because of the large number of dogs.  The rescuers said the dogs looked pretty healthy, but they were dirty and of course they should have had shots and vet care and stuff like that.






And all these dogs started from only two pairs of dogs.  Mr. Hammond bought the first pair as puppies at a flea market in the 1990s, which seems like a very strange place to buy a rare breed like the New Guinea Singing Dog.  And then later on, Mr. Hammond bought another pair of singer pups.  So all 85 of his dogs came from just these 4 dogs, which means that there was lots of inbreeding going on.






Sometimes, in these hoarding situations, the dogs are all euthanized, but in this case, people are trying to save the dogs and find new homes for them.  Mr. Hammond will be allowed to keep 10 dogs because he is cooperating with the animal control people and the rescuers.  But his 10 dogs will be spayed and neutered and vaccinated before he gets them back.


Meanwhile, a group called New Guinea Singing Dog International is trying to rescue the other singers.   This group needs donations, and they also need people who can give these dogs homes.  NGSDs are not the best kind of dog for just anybody to adopt, though, because they have a high prey drive, and they can climb trees and fences, and you have to be careful to keep them from getting out of your yard.  But if you think you might like to adopt one of these rare and interesting dogs, you can find out more on the NGSD International website.  And you can see tons of photos on the group's Facebook page.

At this time of year, people sometimes have parties, and they tell everybody to bring a "white elephant" gift.  And as far as I can figure out, this means you are supposed to bring something to the party that you don't want, and then you will give it to someone else who also doesn't want it.  Plus you will end up with another gift to bring home that you don't want, either.





And all of this seems kind of dumb to me, when I get to thinking about it.  Not that I really understand some of the stuff that humans do anyway.  But this white elephant thing brought several questions to my mind, such as:

1.  Are there really any elephants that are white?
2.  If so, is there something wrong with these elephants that makes people not like them?
3.  What do elephants have to do with giving gifts?

Anyway, after I thought up these excellent questions, I started doing my usual in-depth research, and I learned some interesting things.

First of all, I found out that there really are white elephants living in Asia.  They are albinos, and they are kind of rare.  Also they are not white-white, like my cute little feet are white.  They are just sort of a dirty whitish color, but mostly they are lighter in color than a regular elephant.

And the second thing I learned is that in the past, white elephants were considered very, very special in countries like Thailand or Laos or Myanmar, where they were sometimes even worshipped.  You could not use white elephants to carry stuff or do other work.  That's how special they were.  So a white elephant couldn't earn its keep, and only rich people such as emperors could afford to have white elephants.


Which is why white elephants made bad gifts.  People say that the King of Siam used to give a white elephant to somebody he didn't like anymore. And the person who got the white elephant couldn't use it to work, but still had to pay for its food and make it available so that people could come and worship it.  And in the end, the person who got the white elephant would go broke.






The term "white elephant" to mean a gift that is expensive to take care of without bringing you any money in return was first used in the 15th century.  Now it mostly just means that you are making a gift out of something that you don't want anymore.  But the person you are giving it to may not want it either.  I guess this is supposed to be funny, but it just seems kind of dumb to me, like I said before.



In June of this year, some people in Myanmar found a white elephant roaming around in the jungle, and they captured it and gave it to the king.  White elephants are still symbols that make people feel like they will be lucky and rich -- well, as long as they personally don't have to pay for the white elephant's food.







So that's the story of white elephants and why you don't want anyone to ever give you a real, live one unless you don't mind going bankrupt in order to feed it.  But guess what I found out!  There is a really pretty hosta plant called "White Elephant," so you could get one of those, and it would be easy and cheap to take care of, and you could tell everybody that you had a white elephant, and you would not be telling a lie!

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