ok, this might be a strange question`but, is it possible for animals to be racist. i have a7 month old dog, have had her since 8weeks, and when we are in public, whenever a white person walks by, she will ag her tail and act all friendly, but when a black person walks by she barks and gets very aggresive, same thing when she sees one on tv. any thoughts?
is it possible............
- Thread starter johnnyjohn17
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I'm just tossing this out there-- It could be that dogs associate 'friendly' with humans of the owners colour? There's actually been some recent studies that said that even in the most racially tolerant homes, kids will identify more with kids of their own colour. I think that the advice was that, "Many people who aren't racist feel uncomfortable discussing race because is shouldn't be an issue. But it is, in a biological sense, so it should very well be discussed." It would make a degree of sense, that when dealing with a different species, like a dog, that is protective of its owner, the dog might respond more adversely to people who are more visibly different.
As far as the gender thing goes, maybe it's a hormone and smell thing. Just watch an un-fixed male dog around human female vaginas... It could also be the acclimatised to a gender and is protective thing...
I dunno...
I don't know about the race thing. I have yet to have come across such an occurence before. As for the gender issue, some animals suffer minor to extreme abuse at the hands of people. If it happens in their early stages of growth, sometimes from their first day of life, they recognize the gender of the abuser as dangerous. This leads to the belief that some animals are sexist.
A dog or cat is no more racist than a child, but a dog, cat or child can be made to be racist or have a bias against a skin color or a gender. I was told by an Italian guy once that his dog hates black people, the dog may have picked up on the masters reaction as they walked pass black people and reacted with the way the master is reacting. This particular Italian guy is very clannish about Italians and would rather be with dishonest, racist, sexist Italians rather than be friends with honest and honorable non Italians. I use to have a cat that favored women to men, it may be because men will be rougher with cats when playing with them.
Dogs are colour blind kids.....they judge humans the same way they judge each other, by smell. Ever notice your dog will immediately be friendly towards some other dogs regardless of colour or size but will snarl and bark at others for no apparent reason? Oh, before you jump on the different smells associated with different races just remember,,,dogs sniff each others asses, the more pungeant you are the more interesting you are. 
