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“ DOGS WITH WINGS" I NDER the above caption THE MAN IN THE STREET writes in one
of the English dailies :
“ There are few of us who have not at some time spent a million pounds or so- in our day dreams. Most of it, I fear, goes on steam yachts, country mansions, and such-like vanities, but we sometimes devote a few hundred thousand, to philanthropic ends before waking up with a cold in the head, caught through sitting too near our overdraft. In these benevolent moods we are apt to conceive fantastically idealistic schemes, but I doubt if even the most imaginative has thought of anything so bizarre as an idea which has entered the brainbox of a real honest-to-goodness millionaire, hight Arjun Lalshet.
This wealthy Hindu, belonging to the Jain sect, which is strenuously opposed to killing, has purchased an entire village near Baroda and turned it into a 'dogs' city, 'to wean away dogs from their habit of killing. No animal food is given to the inhabitants. Puppies are brought up on semolina fried in clarified butter, and when they attain doghood are given wheat bread. All mice holes are stopped lest they tempt canine citizens from the pure lives they are being trained to lead, and the Jaina hopes by these means to bring up a breed of “civilised " dogs from whom the killing instinct has been eradicated.
If any reader who has day-dreamed himself into a millionaire has ever thought of a more fantastic manifestation of idealism I'll eat one of Mr. Winston Churchill's hats. Doubtless Arjun Lalshet means well, but what a waste of wealth and energy this scheme will seem to those of us who like " a dog as is a dog." And where, 0 where, will this organised opposition to the doctrine of the survival of the fittest end ?
By stuffing up mice holes our well-meaning opponent of killing may be dooming thousands of mice to death by starvation. Again. by protecting the mice from their natural enemies and depriving the
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