In May 1907, the Reverend Dr. William J. Long, a prominent naturalist, penned a number of articles lambasting famously rugged President Theodore Roosevelt for his hunting exploits. Throughout his life, Roosevelt was fond of killing bears, deer, and other wild game, a “savage” hobby that Long excoriated. The naturalist claimed that animals were smarter than humans believed them to be and thus deserved more individual respect.
Long gave many examples: He spoke of woodcocks that, after breaking a leg, would create a kind of clay cast and stand on the healthy leg until the clay hardened. He said that wolves knew to kill deer by biting their hearts out through the chest, something Roosevelt mocked as both a mental and physical impossibility. Long further claimed that he watched his pet dog eat a live chicken, and when confronted, the dog lay on top of the carcass and pretended to be asleep to hide his crime. A coon dog never has “consciousness of guilt,” claimed naturalist and Roosevelt supporter John Burroughs in a later New York Times essay.
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