Skip to main content

story identification - Aliens want to destroy all dogs because they are seen as next step in evolution beyond Man


I read a SF short story years ago, I think it may have been in high school back in the 1970s. Aliens come to earth, to kill all the dogs, because they see Man as destroying himself, and dogs as evolving to take Man's place, thus being a threat to the aliens. Humanity agrees to kill all the dogs to get rid of the aliens, but in fact have taken border collies (?) deep underground in order to save them and ensure that they evolve.



Does anyone know the title/author of this short story?


Thank you in advance for your assistance.



Answer



Except for the publication date, this sounds exactly like Preemption by Charlie Rosenkrantz, which was published in Analog in June 2006 and anthologized in David G. Hartwell's The Year's Best SF 12 in 2007.


The aliens were contracted to eliminate dogs:



AT THE REQUEST OF A SPECIES THAT WE HAVE ENTERED INTO A MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH, WE ARE ELIMINATING A THREAT TO THE FUTURE BALANCE OF POWER IN THIS PART OF THE GALAXY.



Several breeds were saved:




Tails were wagging that belonged to Irish Shepherds, Dalmatians, German Shepherds, and Pomeranians. From Golden Retrievers to English Sheepdogs, Labradors to Papillons, there were thirty-seven breeds represented as well as a broad assortment of mutts.



The reason the dogs were being eliminated was:



NO OTHER SPECIES ON YOUR PLANET EXHIBITS THE SAME EAGERNESS TO LEARN AS YOUR CANINE SPECIES DOES. [elided] IT IS THIS CAPACITY, ALONG WITH ALARMINGLY PROLIFIC BREEDING, THAT WOULD HAVE SWIFTLY PROPELLED THEM TO FULL SENTIENCE AND DOMINATION OF THIS ARM OF THE GALAXY.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...