What the Hell is a Dog?
For a new Taxonomy
85 % of what we call “dog” is not a dog. And we’ve been lying to you for decades.
Out of the 900 million canids that humanity labels “dog”, only about 150 million actually deserve the name. The other 750 million are wolves in disguise, village scavengers, true ferals. Yet we still sell them to you as “dogs” when all you want is to save a ‘poor suffering canid guy’.
The result? Thousands of failed adoptions, abandonments, “behavioural” euthanasia, and broken-hearted families who believe they are bad owners.
It is time to stop the compassionate lie.
A true Dog – Canis lupus familiaris – is a canid that prefers a human to another canid. Full stop.
If it would rather go sniff a fellow canid than stick to you like emotional superglue, sorry: it is not a Dog. It is a canid. And it deserves a different name.
The numbers that hurt
• 150 million true family dogs (the ones who live in our homes and are emotionally addicted to us).
• 200 million genuine ferals (back to near-wolf state, fully independent).
• 500–550 million “village dogs”: they hang around humans because of garbage and feces, not because they love us. The attachment is zero – and usually mutual hatred.
[Sources: Coppinger & Coppinger (2016), Lord et al. (2013), Gompper (2014), FAO/WSAVA estimates 2020-2025.]
The killer definition
A true Dog has an extended sensitive imprinting socialization period toward humans that lasts up to 12–16 weeks (vs 2-3 weeks in wolves and max 6–7 weeks in true ferals).
A true Dog carries hypersocial genetic variants:
– boosted OXTR (oxytocin receptor)
– WBSCR17 region (canine Williams-Beuren syndrome: hypersociability, human-directed gaze, inability to live without intimate contact).
Outcome: eye contact triggers a mutual oxytocin loop that makes the Dog emotionally dependent on humans. Village or feral canids? These variants are rare or absent.
[References: vonHoldt et al. (2017), Banerjee & Aden (2021), Hansen Wheat et al. (2022).]
The history of a taxonomic lie
Today everything is still lumped under Canis lupus familiaris.
Why did the dingo get its own name (Canis lupus dingo) in 1957?
Why does the New Guinea singing dog have Canis lupus hallstromi?
Why was the Indian “pariah dog” once classified as Canis lupus familiaris var. paria?
Because they were far away (from us).
The moment a canid rummages through our trash and eat our excrement, we call it a “dog” so we can sell it or make it adoptable.
Compassionate marketing = cruelty.
2025 Taxonomic Revolution – my formal proposal –
– Canis lupus familiaris → reserved exclusively for the true hypersocial family dog (the 150 million).
– Canis lupus vicanus → village dog / street dog (the 500+ million that live near humans without attachment).
– Canis lupus feralis → genuine feral (dingo-like, singing-dog-like, South-American wild dogs, etc.).
– Canis lupus paria (or Canis lupus sordidus if we keep the historical stigma) → optional for despised populations.
Yes, they are interfertile.
Yes, coding genetic differences are tiny (0.1–0.4 %).
But that is exactly the same logic that gave the dingo its own subspecies name while it is 99.96 % identical to the family dog.
Ecology and ethology must take precedence over raw genetics when we name an animal by its lived reality.
Objections – crushed in three seconds flat
“But they can interbreed!” → Wolves and Dogs can too. We still don’t put them in the same species.
“It’s speciesism!” → No. It is stopping the lie that destroys families.
“It will complicate shelters!” → On the contrary: we will stop placing Canis feralis with families who want a ‘family dog’.
“People won’t understand Latin names!” → We’ll call them “feral-canid”, “village-canid”, “true Dog”. Three words. Clearer than the current lie.
Punchlines
• 85 % of the planet’s “dogs” are not dogs. They are wild canids sold as teddy bears. Stop the compassionate lie.
• A true Dog prefers a human to another dog. If yours runs to sniff a stranger’s dog first, it’s not a Dog.
• Adopting a feral canid thinking you’re getting a family dog is like adopting a wolf thinking you’re getting a golden retriever – except everyone will blame you for being a bad owner.
• Official proposal: Canis lupus familiaris = real Dog. Canis lupus feralis/vicanus = the rest. Who’s signing?
Final ethical call
Stop selling wolves and calling them dogs.
Give them the name they deserve.
Give back to the true Dog – the one who chose us 40,000 years ago, who preferred our gaze to the forest – the unique dignity of its title.
The wolf once offered us the gift of its trust.
We answered with genocide and taxonomic lies.
It is time to make amends.
Dr Joel Dehasse, December 20, 2025