Issue02
Hi, creatures. This one is about the dog at the gate — and why blaming the breed is the surest way to guarantee it happens again. Plus a meme, a good boy, two findings, and what's stirring on the city's streets.
The case
Who Opened the Gate
We insist animals understand nothing — right up until they inconvenience us. Then, suddenly, we put them on trial.
This issue's strip — eight panels, one latch, no punches pulled:
Because it can’t all be teeth and courtroom drama. Your palate cleanser, courtesy of the internet:
Watch on Instagram →
Somewhere out there lives a dog who has concluded, with total certainty, that the kitchen bin is a predator — and a human who took one look at that terror and said say less. What follows is thirty seconds of a grown adult squaring up to a trash can, wrestling it, banishing it, while the dog supervises from a safe three feet like a tiny general who has delegated the entire war. Ridiculous. Also the whole contract in one clip: they can’t read the world, so we go fight their monsters for them. You opened the gate — you can also throw hands with the bin. Ten out of ten, would enlist. — clip via @memezar · drop in a still or the reel embed
Two findings worth carrying around. Light on pictures, heavy on oh.
Breed barely predicts the dog
A study of 2,000+ dogs against 200,000 owner surveys found breed accounts for under 10% of an individual dog's behaviour — and no behaviour unique to any single breed. Age and sex often predict temperament better than pedigree.
Source · Science / AAAS →Punishment is what makes them bite
A University of Pennsylvania study led by veterinary behaviorist Dr. Meghan Herron found that confrontational training — hitting, “alpha rolls”, growling at or staring a dog down — provoked an aggressive response in at least a quarter of the dogs it was tried on. Fear drives an animal into fight-or-flight, which shuts down the very learning it is meant to produce; reward-based methods elicited almost none.
Source · ScienceDaily / Herron et al. (2009) →What's stirring on the streets near you. Small items, real places — send yours in and we'll run them.
“A muzzle is not a punishment”
When TherPup asked one dog — one with an unprovoked Shih Tzu attack already on its record — to either muzzle up next to its human or kick back in boarding for a single crowded event, the internet clutched its pearls and cried cruelty. It’s the opposite. This is a café running 10,000+ sq ft of off-leash freedom quietly deciding that freedom comes with one house rule: don’t maul the other guests. They’re not here to flatter pawrents or hand out Good Boy participation trophies — they’re here to keep the actual animals safe, and getting in front of a known biter before it bites again is the most pro-dog move in the building. Muzzle = management, not shame.
Send us the good, the grim, and the local
A rescue that needs eyes, a civic win, a black-spot for road accidents, a shopkeeper who leaves out water. City Notes runs on tip-offs — email us at hi@fellowcreatures.space with what you're seeing.
So — are we doing right by them?
Mull it over · India · 2026 · Read about us · Privacy Policy