Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-11-16
DOGS HATRED OF CATS.
Antipathy Which Scientists Say Dates
Back to Prehistoric Con-
ditions.

Why does the dog hate the cat?. Scien-
lists have been investigating the ell
nifty between these animals, and they
believe that the instructive hatred which
certain beasts feel OF each other is due
to inheritance from ancient times,
when the animals met in wild state and
preyed on each other, says the st. Paul
Globe.
The enmity between cats and dogs
seems to be due more to hatred on the
part of the dog than Of the cat. The
latter animal apparently hates dogs.
because dogs chase her; while the dog
hates the cat because she is cat.
A cat will feed at a place where a
dog has been without betraying any
signs of anger; but dog generally be-
comes excited and wild if he scents
the trail Of a cat anywhere near his
food or sleeping place.
Now this enmity is not to be ex-
planned by anything that happens be-
tween dogs and cats in domesticity
or anything that ever happened be-
tween them as long ago as human his
tory goes. In all these thousands of
years dogs and cats have been kept
as pets, and of all animals they are
the two which should be the most
friendly.
But the reverse is the case. One
naturalist, DR.. Zell, seeks it in the fact
that the common cat not only looks
like, but smells like, the great cats
OF prey. And of those cats of prey
there is one, much like a domestic cat
In many ways. which hunts dogs by
preference. This big cat is the leopard.
The domestic cat and her larger
relative, the wild cat, have never
harmed the race of dogs; but their
great speckled cousin is, and always
has been, the most ferocious of dog
murderers, and the cat must pay for it.
Authorities agree that there is no
animal that the leopard would rather
eat than the dog; as result, there are
many villages in the districts in which
leopards are plentiful where nobody
can keep dog. The great cats will
not hesitate to break into the houses
to seize their favorite dish.
But, says the doubter, the modern
dog certainly could not have known
leopards in many thousands of years,
He has been domestic pet in regions
where there have been no leopards
since man first appeared.
Thtat is true, says DR.. Zell. But he
points to the fact that dogs have a
habit of turning around several times
before they lie down. This, he says,
is due to the fact that when they were
in a wild state they had to do this to
press down leaves and twigs in order
to prepare a bed for themselves; and
as they have not overcome this habit
in all these years of domesticity, it is
quite natural that they should still
inherit fierce hatred of any creature
that smells like leopard.
Dogs and cats are not the only ami
mails that still show inherited fear or
hatred of other beasts, which they
have never seen themselves. Thus the
rhlnOcerOs Is frantically in fear of
anything white, and naturalists say
that it was because once upon a time
some big white animal hunted him.
But that must have been long ago, for
there are no big white animals now
where the rhinoceros dWells,
Chickens that have never seen a fox
will cackle and run in fear if they come
across the place where the ami
NAL has passed, or where his carcass
has been dragged. If fox has been
anywhere near cats drinking dish,
the cat will not approach it,