23. A Nutty Transformation From Dog Lover to Extreme Dog Hater
In Paris, Thomas Jefferson had been an avid dog lover. However, his views on man’s best underwent a change – and a radical change at that. In short, Jefferson’s erstwhile love of dogs turned to outright hatred. He came to loathe them so much, that he called for the extermination of the entire species. It was quite a switch. Jefferson was quite proud of his dogs when he got back home to Monticello, his plantation near Charlottesville, VA. He boasted of their herding skills, and before long, friends had begun to write Jefferson, and ask for a pup from the next litter.
However, Jefferson was one of those types who demanded strict and complete obedience. When one of his dogs proved obstinate, his views on dogs in general underwent a complete change. His nutty reaction to one dog’s disobedience was to kill all his dogs. He also ordered his foreman to rid the plantation of dogs and kill all the slaves’ dogs as well. Eventually, he advocated for the complete eradication of all dogs everywhere. As he put it in a letter to a fellow dog hater in 1811: “I participate in all your hostility to dogs, and would readily join in any plan for exterminating the whole race“.