"Dog: man's best friend." So goes the popular saying, which has been used for many decades. And indeed, this saying has been proved right all the time; not only do people often come to see their dogs as a part of the family, dogs also sometimes treat humans as no different from another dog in the pack - in this case, being treated like a dog is a compliment, not an insult.
Dogs are also extremely social, have high intelligence, and have worked with humans for many years. Or rather, many thousands of years, the Science magazine has proved that humans domesticated grey wolves about 12,000 to 14,000 years in the past. After so many years spent in the company of humans, dogs have gained an insight into human behavior. Experiments done by Brian Hare of Harvard University showed that dogs were even better at figuring out what humans were trying to convey than chimpanzees, which are supposed to be genetically closer to humans. But the question still remains: what exactly is it that earned dogs the title of "man's best friend"? (However sexist that may seem).
The answer lies in the small city of Warrensburg, Missouri, population: 16,000, and a speech in a court case with the line "The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog." (Vest, G., 1870).
Charles Burden owned a sheep-hunting dog, which he called Old Drum. His neighbor and brother-in-law, Leonidas Hornsby, had had his sheep being killed - he suspected a dog was involved. He made an oath to himself to kill the first sheep-killing dog that he saw on his land. One night he caught Old Drum in his yard, and shot him dead.
So began one of the strangest cases in history, with Burden suing Hornsby. The case went through many trials, at magistrate and district court, with the loser in each trial appealing. Finally, it reached the Supreme Court of Missouri.
Representing Burden was George Vest, who was known as one of the finest speakers in the nation. It was George Vest's speech, otherwise called his "eulogy to the dog", that won the case. (Burden was then awarded $50 in damages - quite the anti-climax). The last part of Vest's speech has not been preserved, but the first portion has: what follows is the sentence that gave rise to the saying "dog: man's best friend."
"The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolute, unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog." (Vest, G., 1870).
For the full text of the preserved portion, try a Google search with the keywords "george vest eulogy to the dog". It may seem strange that while dogs have been the faithful companions of human beings for many millenia, this saying only spread in the late 19th century. But even though we humans may have caught onto it late, there can be no truer saying, for dogs have truly proven themselves to be man's best friends.
