There are more than twenty-five million dogs just in the United States, and no one knows how many millions more there are throughout the world. Where did they all come from, and how is it that there are so many kinds? Actually the Bible doesn’t say much about them, but we can be sure they were included on the sixth day of creation when God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle . . . and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so” (Genesis 1:2424And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. (Genesis 1:24)).
“Cattle” as used in this verse does not just refer to cows but includes many other animals that we call “tame” or “domestic” animals. It would seem that some dogs may have been included in this group. Others may also have been created separately as part of the group called “beasts of the earth,” referring to what are now wild animals, living apart from people. We cannot say positively it was this way, but we know that there are wild animals today in the dog family, such as wolves, coyotes, dingoes, jackals and hyenas of Africa, all of which had their original start on that sixth day of creation. But through the thousands of years since then, tame dogs have been companions of men and women and boys and girls all over the world. Most tame dogs have a nature which wants to love and be loved, and they will be a loyal friend in any circumstance.
The reason for so many varieties of dogs is due to the fact that, when puppies are born, they sometimes have the combined characteristics of a male dog of one kind and a female dog of another kind. As a result, they don’t look exactly like either of the parents.
People who raise dogs sometimes crossbreed on purpose in order to produce a new variety. However, it is important to remember that a dog is always a dog, whether wild or tame. Even though its appearance may have changed from the original, it still belongs to the dog family as created by God. We all know that a dog and a cat can never crossbreed any more than a horse and a cow can. God created them to continue “after their kind,” and they can never change this pattern, although God does allow them to mix within their own species, which somewhat changes their looks into what we call “a new breed.”
In the next issue we will explore the special and unusual ways of some tame, or domestic, dogs that are helpful to mankind.
(to be continued)
ML-09/07/2003