FOXSYLVANIA

 – – The Nazis weren’t much on human rights, but apparently were fond of animals and liked the idea that dogs were intelligent and could communicate with people.   According to a new book “Amazing Dogs:  A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities,”  Nazi specialists attempted to train an elite group of dogs regarded as intelligent to read, write, and speak!

Research from Cardiff University associate professor Dr. Jan Bondeson found that the Nazis collected pups from across Germany and put them through intensive training in the 1930’s at the Tier-Sprechschule ASRA (School for Dog-Human Communication) in the town of Leutenberg.  According to Dr. Bondeson, the hope was that the superior dogs would eventually communicate with their SS masters and act as the ultimate guard dogs. Where it gets really strange is in the contention that an institute-trained dog such as one named Rolf the Airedale could communicate with humans on such topics as  religion and mathematics by tapping out an elaborate code with his paw!  Another dog, Kurwenal, supposedly could crack jokes.

Hitler himself was widely recognized as a dog lover, and had two German Shepherds named Blondi and Bella.  Where talking dogs are concerned, we of course will always have Scooby-Doo…

This entry was posted on May 27, 2011 at 1:31 am and is filed under animal oddities, animals, historical perspectives, strange happenings, weird. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Nazi animal experiments