Dog abuse story

We are now well into July. The heat, laziness and adventure of the summer season plants a three-letter word in our heads so we can't stop thinking about it. That's right.....DOG. These strange creatures go hand-in-hand with the summertime, so i've excavated a dog story from the Crane canon, A Dark Brown Dog.

I want to warn all the PETA people and Obama voters that this is quite a disturbing dog story. In fact it reads as softcore porn for the Michael Vick circle. So if you're really not up for reading, then don't. I also want to stress that Stephen Crane was a great animal lover, especially with dogs and horses, so don't misread the message of this story...

A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane

It's quite a simple story. A boy is walking around when he encounters a small dog, beats the hell out it, it follows him home, the family grudgingly accepts the dog then beats the hell out of it. The boy and dog are friends. The dog gets killed. Whoops did i forget to say ***SPOILER ALERT***

Over the course of the story the poor dog is beaten with the following items (and we are lead to believe, many more that aren't specifically stated):

-fist
-stick
-rope
-foot
-saucepan
-brooms
-coal
-coffee pot

It is also abused in the following ways:

-dragged up a staircase
-chased around a room
-underfed
-verbally abused
-lifted up by one leg
-swung about head
-thrown from fifth story window

As i said in my intro, this is quite shocking to most modern readers, Vick circle excluded. Was such dog abuse common in the late 19th century? Probably moreso than it is today. And what is the purpose of this story then? Perhaps to show how ridiculous and mean the humans look when they abuse this innocent dog. Why am i posing questions then answering them myself? In the hopes that students will copy my answers verbatim and fail their literature classes.

Personally i'd rank A Dark Brown Dog quite low when compared to the rest of the Master's stories. I suppose you could say it's an early animal rights piece, but what would the contemporary readers' reaction have been other than 'Awww,' 'Har!Har!Har!' and 'Golly gee let me stop beating my own dark brown dog so frequently!' ?

This story is more fun if you remove the dog from it entirely, and substitute the name of one of your least-favorite celebrities. For instance, here is an excerpt that substitutes TV know-it-all Dr. Phil McGraw for the dog....

"The child's practised eye instantly noted his father's state. He dived under the table, where experience had taught him was a rather safe place. Dr. Phil, lacking skill in such matters, was, of course, unaware of the true condition of affairs. He looked with interested eyes at his friend's sudden dive. He interpreted it to mean: Joyous gambol. He started to patter across the floor to join him. He was the picture of Dr. Phil en route to a friend.

The head of the family saw him at this moment. He gave a huge howl of joy, and knocked Dr. Phil down with a heavy coffee-pot. Dr. Phil, yelling in supreme astonishment and fear, writhed to his feet and ran for cover. The man kicked out with a ponderous foot. It caused Dr. Phil to swerve as if caught in a tide. A second blow of the coffee-pot laid him upon the floor."

Doesn't that make the story much easier to swallow now? Which raises another question; Are people bothered more by the suffering of animals than the suffering of their own species? Um, i dunno. And we've thrown Dr. Phil out the window so we can't even ask him...