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For my two pennysworth.......Why would a man with no hunter/gather instincts go so far away from civilization, yes he took food and a canoe and his dog, but he was in the wilderness near the Nottaway River area, a place where there would have been fish, insects, small mammals and of course bears along with plant foods. Anyone into survival especially on their own, will always have a knife in their pocket to use for anything from making weapons to hunting..........  just makes no sense to me, he wasn't on a snow covered mountain, he was in the wilderness as vast as that may be........ with a dog who also would have probably reverted to instinctual hunting, hey the bear might have been an option?

In desperate times with no other food source and both myself and my dog starving, I guess it's a possibility I may be driven to do that, but it would have taken more than 3 days for that logical and desperate thinking to happen. I'd rather eat a handful of insects, but he could not have had much else with him for survival, the bear wouldn't have eaten those things.

He survived, which I guess is the main thing.

Mixed reaction here on the article, my friend would rather starve to death than eat her dog, I may............eventually, gulp! And when I spoke to my mother this afternoon, she said she definitely would eat her dog........ (hope to never be stranded starving alone with her! :-D )

I would NOT kill my dog to eat it, I am 100% sure of that.

Even without the moral issue though, it doesn't make any sense to kill the dog for food, especially in that climate. The dog can provide warmth - the lack of which would kill you much, much quicker than the lack of food. The dog also provides protection, the ability to track & hunt for you and company to help keep one sane.

Seems more than cruel to kill the dog for food, it seems plain stupid!!

> He survived, which I guess is the main thing.

It appears he survived for 3 months after he ate the dog, by eating plants. Strange how he never though of eating plants sooner.

I'm sorry but my formal reaction is "please send him here, my dogs loves a raw diet".

I honestly can't see myself ever doing that, I know I can't imagine starving to death either, but I'd sooner lay down and die of hunger cuddling with them than harm them. Actually made me feel quite nauseated.

I don't think I want to read the article to be honest, but I could never see ANY animal as food, and it is so deep rooted in me that I don't think starving would make any difference. I think I'd be more inclined to try to eat whatever vegetation there was.

It appears he survived for 3 months after he ate the dog, by eating plants. Strange how he never though of eating plants sooner.

It's a strange one isn't it?  I could understand it if it were something like the true story of ALIVE, crashed in the snow mountains with no food at all. (Still not 3 days in) And as I've said it may have even pushed me to do something that feels so heinous.

But, the wilderness...... is a different kettle of fish, you could find food of some sort, the sad thing is no matter how hungry that dog would have been it would have been loyal to the end, only eating him once he'd passed.

I reckon my two would have me at the first hunger pang!  The beagle does not cope well with waiting a bit longer for tea when the clocks change never mind 3 days! 

Seriously though, I would never even think to do it.  If the dogs were truly suffering due to starvation I hope I would find it in me to help them on their way but I would be burying them not barbecuing!

> I reckon my two would have me at the first hunger pang!  The beagle does not cope well with waiting a bit longer for tea when the clocks change never mind 3 days! 
>

Oh dear, make sure you take protective clothing if you head off into the wilderness :)

I reckon my two would have me at the first hunger pang! Bless! :-D :-D They'd be out doing their own wilderness shopping, think you'd be safe.

The man concerned has to live with his own conscience and I guess the human race can digress pretty quickly when it comes to our own survival, I truly could not justify 3 days in though, that is a logical thought process and all I can think is he couldn't have been that close to the dog or perhaps as you say in jest, he really had a worry that the dog may have eventually gone for him first, not all dogs are mans best friend?

We can survive for a long time without food or on a reduced diet, lack of water is the main problem. I could no more eat my dog then tuck into myself!
I find it quite odd that he was able to survive so well for three months after he had eaten the dog, but couldn't have possibly managed for the three days prior. I would have thought the dog would have been so useful to him, warmth at night, a guard and protector and probably even a source of getting food such as hunting for rabbits etc. of course we don't really know the whole story, just what is printed in a newspaper and it's difficult to know exactly what you would do in the same circumstances, but I really couldn't see me even managing to kill the dog let alone eat it.

Not quite the same but about 10 years ago i was so poor that for a good few weeks i survived on smart price digestive biscuits. I rationed myself to 3 meals a day of 2 biscuits at a time. Another time when i was a teenager i had run out of friends sofas to live and from what i can remember i'm sure it was about 3 perhaps four days i did not eat. Your stomach shrinks and after a while you stop being hungry. I know this is completely different as he was in freezing temperatures but 3 days is far too soon, he must have gone over it in his head for a while wondering wether to do it so it makes you wonder when the first thought came? Day 1?

> I don't think I want to read the article

i havent read it either and wont. I would rather starve myself than eat my dogs.
ETA then at least my dogs could go on a little longer by eating me!!! :_

> But, the wilderness...... is a different kettle of fish, you could find food of some sort

Reading a couple of other news articles, it seems that the man has not been able to talk much due to how poorly he is but it is known that he wasn't injured when the bear attacked as the dog got between the man & the bear......

I wonder if the dog was injured when it saw off the bear? Perhaps the man killed the dog due to injuries (ie. in the dogs best interests) and ate it rather than letting the body going to waste? If that turns out to be the case, it puts it in a different light in my mind. ( I still couldn't eat my own dog though!)

ML, very good point, we know how newspapers report things, that would make a huge difference to this story and if that was the case, I feel sorry for the man as he will no doubt be getting a lot of stick for what he did out of kindness, rather than the reported rather fast decision for his survival.

Carrington, they are rubbish they might catch stuff but they bring it back live for me to deal with! 
And they would scoff all my food in one go the day before they started on me!
I would be sleeping with one eye open for sure.

What's that saying about being 24 hours and a few meals away from anarchy?  I can't judge the man for what he did but I struggle to think I could ever do anything similar

I would NOT kill my dog to eat it, I am 100% sure of that.

In the conditions described your dog would probably eat you whilst you were alive.
.

Hmmm, found another article with a time-line of events.

Apparently, after the bear attack, the man was left with 2 rifles & hunted fish & wild game. He hurt his ankle forcing him to stop his journey. After a month he ran out of ammo & then killed the dog (seemingly) to eat it  :( :(

> In the conditions described your dog would probably eat you whilst you were alive.

What would you base that on? Starving pet dogs do not kill their owners to eat, any rescue organisation will tell you of many, many dogs that have been found next to dead from starving (even dogs of the same breed as mine - ie big enough to dispatch a human very quickly), none of these dogs ate their owners to survive!!!!!!
No, my dog is a typical dog - he is happy to scavenge, he'd be in his element just munching on the droppings of game.

Hmmm, found another article with a time-line of events.

Unbelievable isn't it?  That is such a different time-line of events to the story I came across....... this one makes much more sense, weeks in with hunger and all the effects of starvation perfectly understandable why he did it, depends on which newspaper you read I guess. ;-)