“A Dog Doesn’t Bite the Hand that...??”
Everyone says that a dog doesn’t bite the hand that feeds it. But I disagree. And I offer the story of Camel and Dog as proof.
Camel had a Dog. Or rather, we should say, Dog had Camel, and Dog had many other Camels, too. The Camels fed Dog, because they worked for him and did all the work while Dog stood around and said nasty things about the Camels and got fat.
Dog was in cahoots with Giraffe and Water Buffalo. They used Rooster to keep the Camels working so they themselves wouldn’t have to work. Every once in a while Dog gave a speech to the Camels about how “we all have to work together,” then he would send the Camels back to work while he stood around and criticized them. Dog said they were a “team.”
Every day the Camels would come to work and run the machines and turn out production that would pay Dog’s high salary and bonuses. This is how they fed Dog. And Dog, in turn, would give the Camels just enough pay to live on, and that sometimes fell short.
So the Camels were the hand that fed Dog. But did Dog show any gratitude? I would rather that you be the judge.
In return for all the work the Camels did for him, Dog told them that if they didn’t like feeding him they could just bid out to another location or hit Fort Street. Dog put the oldest Camels on the worst jobs. He tried get them to race each other to turn out more and more work. He constantly placed one extra task after another on the backs of all the Camels. He tried to intimidate the young Camels into working harder, hoping they would not realize they were setting a pattern that would wear them out before their time. And no matter how hard the Camels tried to persuade Dog to show them more consideration, he just spoke to them in a bullying way and ignored all their suggestions and complaints.
One day a Camel bumped into Little Rooster. Little Rooster claimed to be injured, but was seen walking normally later that night. But Little Rooster didn’t like this Camel and he decided that Camel had bumped him deliberately. He ran to Big Rooster, who got together with some of her fellow roosters and had Camel thrown out of the building and fired, not caring whether or not Camel had any way to support his family. The only witnesses were two other Camels. Giraffe, Water Buffalo and Dog all backed up Little Rooster, although they didn’t see the incident and could only take his word against three Camels. Bigmouth Camel, who worked in the union office, was too lazy to find one of the Camel witnesses. And when the case finally reached the Arbitrator, the Arbitrator disregarded the other Camel witness and upheld Camel’s firing.
Dog, who could have nipped all of this in the bud early on, told Camel’s wife that he was “sorry” her husband had gotten fired. The husband was one of the Camels who had been feeding Dog for many years. Now, didn’t Dog bite him, just as he had been biting all the other Camels?
This is why I don’t believe the old saying, “A dog doesn’t bite the hand that feeds it.”
Do you?