Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor
However feral dogs used to be a plague in Middle Eastern cities, enough that "dog" is one of the greatest of insults in the Bible (the one time dogs are referred to positively, it is as a hound as you might expect).
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Don't know about
used to be - many Middle Eastern (and other under-developed area) cities are still plagued by packs of (generally suspiciously similar looking) yellowish brown dogs that scavenge for food but can and attack and kill humans if they think they can get away with it. Normally the default abusive treatment they get from the locals keeps their numbers down but they are still prone to snatch unattended toddlers and stalk people walking alone at night. In wartime these things get a lot worse - after Gulf War 2 the various city garrisons (whether locals, Allied Regulars or PMCs) shot hundreds of the wretched things as they had been getting out of control, and a chap who was deployed to Fallujah described the dogs following his rifle platoon and feeding on the insurgent casualties (or parts thereof) left behind them.
Mind you, one of my Father's old war stories involves the stray dogs that lived in and around Aden when he was deployed there. Obviously they and the locals hated each other, but there was no such history between them and the soldiers of the British garrison who, often being quite fond of dogs, soon proved themselves more likely to throw food than stones. Thus the dogs considered the British great friends and would accompany them on patrol, barking furiously any natives that were about (especially anyone who looked like they were hiding). The volunteer K9 unit also helped out by living in the dead zone outside the camp perimeter and raising the alarm at night if the locals appeared to be sneaking up on the fence … at which point the garrison would light up the loudest part of the dead zone and open fire. Whether or not the dogs were allowed to clean p afterward was not told to me.