Euro Puppy's Blog

There is a very strange custom found in Central India, among certain of the Gond people. According to the ritual it is acceptable for a human being to marry a dog. The Gond are aboriginal tribes, that still speak a fairly simplified set of unwritten languages. Their lifestyle, while not truly nomadic, tends not to have permanent settlements. Their villages are periodically moved to various sites on land which is owned by the whole clan. Their beliefs place them totally outside of the Hindu caste system. They do not acknowledge the superiority of Brahmans and don't feel bound by many Hindu rules.

Their style of agriculture is quite simple and traditional, which basically involves slash-and-burn operations. So how does the marriage between humans and dogs play a role in this? Well, because they continually clear wild land, the Gond often encounter wild animals, and these encounters can be fatal to humans armed only with digging sticks. The Gond of the Bastar region of India believe that if a woman's husband has been killed by a wild animal - especially a tiger- it is necessary for her to marry a dog, before she can take another husband.

The Gond believe that the dead husband's spirit now inhabits the tiger or another beast that killed him, and this spirit will then cause that same beast to kill any new man that the woman marries. To solve this problem the widow first must ceremonially marry a dog. The dead husband's spirit can then satisfy his jealousy be killing the dog, and he will not threaten the life of the new human husband. Although, this seems like a good outcome for the woman, I am sure, somewhere deep down, the dogs know that a simple divorce would be a better end to their marriage instead of the one the Gond envision for them!

For those Andy Warhol fanatics who love the pop art feeling that was created with Marilyn Monroe, you can now also have an awesome contemporary pop art painting of your favorite dog picture! You can choose something in the style of wacky Warhol, or simply something just a little bit off the wall and your dog can be the focus of attention!

From this:

To this:

Some things (and people) never cease to amaze Euro Puppy. A collection to walk down the runway out of P-Diddy’s collection was fur-hooded coats with an element of a tailwag to it. Fur from a breed of dog called “raccoon dog” was used to make the garments. These dogs look more like raccoons, but belong in the canid family together with dogs, foxes and wolves. Although the resemblance to a raccoon is startling, it is not related to a raccoon at all. Its family name is "Canidae," Latin for "dog,". This animal is definitely a dog.

They are barbarically slaughtered in China. Or should I say anally electrocuted? Hundreds or thousands of these puppies and dogs were killed to create the clothing line of the rap-star. Following an investigation by the Humane Society revealed that they contained fur from raccoon dogs, despite the fact that they were being advertised as faux fur. A spokesman for Macy's talked about its long-standing policy against the selling of any dog or cat fur. Macy’s banned the clothing line and it seems P Diddy is not going to take this lying down. P-Diddy also expressed his outrage and concern, saying "I was completely unaware of the nature of this material, but as soon as we were alerted, the garments were pulled off the Macy's floor and the Web site." He stopped the production of his fur-coats.

Strangely enough, both Macy's and P-Diddy freak out when they discover there is a fly in the soup and dogs in the clothing line. However, they're perfectly content to produce and sell fur garments made from other animals? I would love to know what the rationale behind this really is…If you wouldn't wear your dog, why would you wear any other fur?

< sigh >