From ancient times to the present, dog-human hybrids of sexual origin have been repeatedly reported, often by eyewitnesses. This page is where I began my attempts to collect those reports into a single article that would serve as a draft for a chapter of my book Telenothians,now available here. Hybrids involving non-human primates and dogs are covered on a separate page.
The various discussions of hybrids on this site attempt to include all relevant reports that have been encountered, at least those made by serious people, especially by scholars. This policy of listing all such reports has been set with the intention of avoiding a systematic reporting bias. The same is done here with respect to allegations of hybridization between human beings and dogs. But given the deep history of this cross, it seems appropriate to provide a bit of background information before turning to the actual reports.
Background
Cynocephaly, the condition of a human having the head of a dog, is described in the writings of many different cultures, both ancient and recent. As myth, there is an extensive literature on dog-human hybrids. For millennia, authors from China to Greece have written of these creatures, the Cynocephali, strange beings who usually preferred to occupy the gray, unknown regions of the map.
In medieval and ancient times, it was widely believed that entire races of dog-headed men existed (for example, see the extracts from Ctesias and Marco Polo below). Writing in the early fifth century A.D. (City of God, 16:8), St. Augustine expresses his puzzlement on the topic: “What shall I say of the Cynocephali, whose dog-like head and barking proclaim them beasts rather than men?” Pliny the Elder (Natural History, 7.2) reported that in the mountains of India “there is a tribe of men who have
the heads of dogs, and clothe themselves with the skins of wild beasts. Instead of speaking, they bark; and, furnished with claws, they live by hunting and catching birds.
In Eastern Orthodox iconography, another saint, St. Christopher, was often represented as having the head of a dog (see image below). It seems that many medieval scholars were more concerned with how such creatures should be classified than with whether they actually existed. Thus, in a letter, the Benedictine monk Ratramnus of Corbie (Epistola de Cynocephalis ad Rimbertum presbyterum scripta, 1153), who lived in the ninth century, wrote
So you would like to know what you should believe about the Cynocephali, whether you should deem them descendants of Adam, or count them as mere animals? [Translated by E.M. McCarthy. Original Latin.]
Article continues below
In Eastern Orthodox iconography, St. Christopher was often depicted as a dog-human hybrid.
A medieval depiction of five cynocephali (dog-human hybrids).
Saint with dog-human hybrids (Kievan Psalter, 1397, artist unknown).
An early asiatic representation of cynocephali (Zakariya al-Qazwini, Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing, 13th century).
Petrus Gonsalvus (c. 1537 – 1618) and his wife Catherine (artist: Joris Hoefnagel). The well-documented Petrus comes close to fitting the bill for a cynocephalus. It's thought that this couple were the original inspiration for Beauty and the Beast.
The Egyptian god Anubis had the form of a dog-human hybrid (from The Papyrus of Ani, c. 1250 B.C.)
Enlarge
The Egyptians worshiped various dog-headed gods, including the major deity Anubis (pictured at right). In Mesopotamia, the Sumerians revered the goddess Bau, who, under the name of Nininsina, was long represented with a dog’s head. And in some parts of the world, such beliefs linger even today. For example, effigies of dog-headed men still stand duty as temple demons in the wats of Thailand.
Many traditions exist, too, about women being ravished by dogs. Thus, in the Dhammapada (Verse 151), the Buddha utters the following about Queen Mallika, wife of King Prasenajit (Bullough 1976):
One day, Queen Mallika went in to bathe, and her pet dog came with her. And as she was bending to cleanse her feet, he mounted her, and she was not displeased. But the king observed this through the window. And when she came in, he cried, “O! Wicked woman! What did you there with that dog? Do not deny those things I saw with my own eyes!” The queen replied that she was only bathing, and therefore had transgressed not. Then she said, “But that chamber is most odd. To those looking in from the window, anyone alone there seems two. If you believe me not, O King, I entreat you go into that chamber that I might look upon you through the window.”
So, the king did enter there. And when he came forth, Mallika asked why he had been transgressing there with a she-goat. He denied it, but she insisted she had seen him with her own eyes. The king was baffled, but gullible as he was, he agreed that that chamber was most peculiar indeed.
Moreover, in certain cultures human beings sometimes actually marry dogs. For example, the case shown in the video below, in which the parents of a Hindu girl arranged for her to marry a stray dog.
Article continues below
An Inuit story tells of a woman who marries a dog and has hybrid offspring, called Adlets in the Inuit tongue (see quoted story below). Similarly, in their book The Mythology of Dogs (1997), Hausman and Hausman write about the reverence of the Ainu people of northern Japan for dogs: “The word ‘Ainu’ in Japanese means ‘sons of dogs.’ The respect accorded to these animals comes from a legend that states that Ainus are people descended from the union of a dog and a woman.” Nansen (1893, 272) notes “Analogous myths of
A cynocephalic dog-human hybrid gargoyle (Moulins Cathedral, France)
descent from dogs (or wolves, or bears) occur among many races, Aryan as well as Mongolian or American. They lie at the root of the mythology of many Indian tribes, who hold that the first woman took a dog to mate, and that they themselves are descended from this connection.
In his Myths of the Dog-man (1991, p. 137) David Gordon White, comments that “Perhaps by virtue of a Mongol influence,
the lupine ancestry myth is one that is widespread among the peoples of central Asia; but so too is the canine ancestry myth. Whether the latter is a variant of the former or an independent tradition that has become conflated with the former, as in the Mongol tradition, is an insoluble problem.
And then, there are those reports that are non-fictional, at least in tone, but so ancient that they, too, verge on myth. One such is that of Phlegon of Trailles (Hansen translation, 1996), the second-century Roman writer, who mentions that “The wife of Cornelius Gallicanus gave birth near Rome to a child having the head of Anubis”, that is, the head of a dog.
But here the focus will be on serious allegations made in relatively recent times, of humans (or other primates) crossing with dogs. As one might expect, given the taboo nature of the subject, such claims by scientists, physicians and scholars are fairly rare. But they are not nonexistent.
Reports in Medical Journals
A search of the formal literature has revealed relatively few accounts of dog-human hybrids, but some do exist in older medical journals, all involving human mothers. (If you know of other such reports, please communicate the relevant information through the contact page of this website.)
New Jersey. One such communication appeared in the Transactions of the Medical Society of New Jersey (1889, p. 197):
A Birthmark
By John W. Wade, Jr., M.D.
In this city [i.e., Millville, New Jersey], February 3, 1886, Mrs. C., after several “false alarms,” gave birth to a singular specimen of humanity in the shape of a well-developed male child with a dog’s head. The head lacks the occipital bone, and the two parietal bones are long and narrow, diverging towards the base of the skull, making the head flat on top. The brain is atrophied, and is exposed at the cerebellum [a case of anencephaly and/or spina bifida?]. There is no neck nor chin. The mouth is very large, the tongue long, and the nose reaches from the top of the forehead to within half an inch of the upper lip. The eyes bulge out like those of a frog. The ears resemble those of a dog, cropped.
When born, it had been dead only about four minutes. The tongue protruded from the mouth. The head was drawn out to a point, thus bringing the eyes, nose and mouth, close together, making it resemble very much the head of a pug dog. Since its birth it has changed somewhat in appearance. The color of the head has changed from a black to a copper color; the face has become more rounded: it has also become wrinkled.
Ottawa, Illinois. This report appeared in the Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal (1885, vol. 25, p. 126):
A Case of Monstrosity A Child with a Dog’s Head
Dr. C. Hard of Ottawa, Ill., reports the following case: A German woman was delivered of a very large female child, weighing fourteen and a half pounds. The body was well formed and perfect but the head was almost the exact counterpart of a bull pup, and was the most hideous monstrosity I ever saw. The eyes were high up on the forehead, large and round, and protuberant, and were two and a half inches apart; no eyebrows. The nose was long and flat, and continued to the mouth, with wide open nostrils; the distance from forehead to nose and mouth 3 1/2 inches. The ears were small and long, standing out from the sides of the head one inch, and looked like the cropped ears of a stable dog; they were 3 1/2 inches apart. Back of the ears was a single tuft of coarse reddish hair, about one inch long. There was no back part to the head; or rather, no bones, but a simple sac containing a soft, semi-fluid mass [a probable case of anencephaly and/or spina bifida?]. Taking the whole face together, the resemblance to a dog was most striking, and was at once remarked upon by all present, some of whom were anxious that I should dispatch it at once, but I allayed their fears by assuring them that the child would not live. It did live four hours, giving out faint moans from time to time.
Franklin, Wisconsin. Another report is from the Northwestern Medical and Surgical Journal (1848, vol. 1, p. 455):
Monster with a Head Resembling a Dog’s
P. J. Hamilton, M.D., of Franklin, Wis., in a communication relates the following:
On the 9th inst., I was called to see Mrs. R___, whom I found in labor with her fifth child. The pains were very strong when I arrived. The waters were discharged in a short time. I made an examination, and was at a loss to determine the presentation. The pains being strong, I was not long kept in suspense. A child was born with a dog’s head. In every other respect, it was perfect. The cerebellum and part of the cerebrum were covered with their proper membrane; the dura mater [a probable case of anencephaly and/or spina bifida?]. A cartilaginous substance formed part of the os frontis. The ears were long, and lopped down, like a dog’s. The eyes were very large, and in every respect resembled a dog’s.
Kansas City, Kansas. Another report about the birth of a dog-headed child appeared in the professional journal Medical Arena (May 1897, vol. 6(5), p. 148):
A MONSTROSITY
CHAS. H. ST. JOHN, PH.B., M.D., KANSAS CITY, KAS.
Mrs. K_____, a primipara, was delivered of a monstrosity in the month of March, 1897. It had the face of a pug dog without any development of the head and brain [this seems to be a reference to anencephaly], with an imperfect right foot with five toes, being much the shape of a dog’s foot. The period of labor was over twenty hours. There was an abnormal amount of fluid present. The sack had to be punctured twice before the liquor amnii [i.e., amniotic fluid] escaped sufficiently to permit the birth of the child. Vertex presentation, “minus vertex,” [i.e., headfirst, but lacking the top of the head, a probable case of anencephaly] sex female; perfectly developed, with the above exceptions; weight about six pounds; breathed but once after delivery as far as noted by the obstetrician.
During the period of gestation there were no abnormal disturbances, except some slight evidences of ascitic conditions. No albuminuria. Patient recovered rapidly, considering the shock resulting from the protracted labor and the intense mental disturbance. The brief statement was made by Mrs. K_____ that during the early months of pregnancy, when a number of personal friends were present, a conversation took place in which a number of stories were told about dogs. Mrs. K. became very nervous and requested a change of conversation, but at the same time she experienced a peculiar and unnatural warm glow, which seemed to influence her whole body. This resulted in a highly nervous condition that remained for many hours thereafter and impressed her that her unborn child was marked by reason of the peculiar influence that had possessed her. It seemed almost impossible to throw it off. The face of the child was a most perfect picture of the face of the pug dog that was and is now a pet of the household.
Sexual contact. With regard to the simple act of mating, it’s well known that male dogs are extremely promiscuous with respect to choice of mate (as is documented elsewhere on this website). They have been observed in coitu with a wide variety of animals, including not only various primates, but even birds, for example, with chickens and geese. Moreover, scholarly studies of human behavior report the occurrence of sexual relations between dogs and human beings, primarily women, from early times right up to the present (Miletski 2009). Such practices have been documented across a broad range of cultures, ranging from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, to India and Japan and certain Native American cultures, and even to modern America and Europe (ibid). It is on account of this tendency, for example, that the Talmud forbids widows to keep dogs (See: Abodah Zarah 22b). Sexual relations between women and dogs are mentioned, too, in ancient Akkadian omen lists (Freedman 2017, p. 59).
Georgia. Another doctor’s report, from a physicians’ round-table discussion of monstrosities, appeared in the Weekly Medical Review (1884, vol. 9, p. 454). The relevant passage, which appears below, is an excerpt from the comments of one of the participants, one Dr. Dickinson, who gives a description of a supposed dog-headed child born in Georgia. Dickinson says, “I saw some months ago a publication in the papers in regard to a child in Georgia that had a dog’s head. The name of the physician was given, and I wrote to him out of curiosity to know what he had to say about it. He replied as follows:
Dear Doctor—In regard to the account you speak of, I must say it is a great wonder indeed, but as to its being part dog and part man, I don’t know what to say to you. I will just give you a short account of the case and let you judge. The child is from an unmarried woman, her first, a male child. It presented pedalic extremities first, and flexed upon themselves, and with a good effort I succeeded with great difficulty to deliver, and when I delivered it, I found it perfect male up to the head and face. It has no mouth, no chin, and just where the mouth and chin ought to be, there is a something extending out like a dog or fox, or something of that kind, and its ears are down, under its jaws, or where its jaws ought to be, on its neck. Its eyes are not square across as usual, but diagonal ranging from outwards and upwards at an angle of about 45 degrees. The nose rested upon this, the human nose, and in the center of this strange nose or proboscis, is a little round opening about as large as a knitting needle. Now to elevate the face or head, and look it in the face, it does not look like a human. and has some appearance of an animal, favoring a fox about as much as the dog, but the features are not that of a perfect dog. I must say I never saw anything like unto it in all my days. It is one of the great wonders of the age. I asked the mother if she got alarmed at a dog or anything. She said no. I cannot learn who or what was its father, as she is not very communicative upon that subject.
Another medical report A similar, but less explicit account appeared in the Transactions of the Michigan Medical Society (1873, vol. 6, p. 402). In describing an anomalous birth, the attending physician, Dr. E. P. Christian of Wyandotte, Michigan, says, “Altogether a very odd and monstrous appearance was presented, realizing in aspect what is popularly described as a dog-headed child” (source.)
English Law In the present context, it’s interesting that some English legal texts dealing with inheritance refer specifically to dog-headed humans. For example, Hawkins (1751, p. 11) states that "None born out of lawful Wedlock can be an Heir. Nor a Monster, i.e., one wanting Human Shape, as having a Dog’s Head, but one having Fingers or Toes too many or too few, or Limbs distorted, is no Monster."
In the first three cases above, the physician making the report goes on to attribute the unusual appearance of the infant to various disturbing experiences that the mother had with dogs while pregnant. And in the case reported from Georgia, the attending doctor tried to do the same, though the mother provided him with no basis for doing so. Up until the early twentieth century, doctors often attributed birth defects to emotional experiences undergone by mothers during pregnancy. Often the specific form of the defect was thought of as the effect of a particular type of experience. Thus, in the cases quoted here, the attending physicians thought that the babies had dog’s heads because the mothers had mentally striking experiences involving dogs. Such effects were termed “maternal impressions.”
And another brief medical mention of such a hybrid appeared in the Lancet (Jul. 4, 1863, p. 27). It reads “A child born with mouth and upper and lower extremities resembling those of a dog.”
News reports
No other reports of a dog crossing with a human being have been found in any formal journal within the last two centuries. There are, however, various news reports about such creatures. Some are mere allegations mailed in by readers, such as the following message from reader “X.D.” printed in the Ann Landers column of the Chicago Tribune on 10/9/1987:
Dear Ann Landers: My grandma was a midwife. She delivered a baby with the head of a Great Dane. It lived two hours and was buried secretly.
X.D.
North Carolina. But others are actual reports by journalists. Thus, the following appeared in The Roanoke News (Mar. 17, 1892, p. 1, col. 3), a newspaper published in Weldon, North Carolina. The story originated with the Durham, North Carolina, Sun.
FOR MEDICAL EXPERTS
A CHILD BORN WITH A NATURAL HEAD BUT A BODY HAVING THE APPEARANCE OF A DOG
Durham Sun
A child was born in Durham this morning the mother being a colored woman, and it is exciting the curiosity of some of our physicians.
A Sun reporter saw it this morning and it beats anything in the way of a freak of nature he ever beheld. The head was a perfect formation of a human being, with the exception that it had rudimentary ears, no chin from the mouth and the jaws extending backwards as in the formation of a dog. It was pronounced to be eight months old and was born dead.[?] There was a thick head of long black hair extending down the neck to the body.
Under the microscope the body showed that it was covered with a hairy fuzz and at the end [of the] spinal column there was a well defined tail one-fourth of an inch long. The body was peculiarly shaped, not exactly resembling a human being. There were no arms, but something in the shape of hands or paws, growing from the skin, with no bones. The body, adjoining the legs, was very peculiarly shaped. There were no ankles. The feet projected from the knee joint.
The formation and appearance of the body was a very peculiar one and the physicians who saw it expressed various opinions, yet all agreed they never saw anything like it before. The body was photographed and then placed in alcohol for preservation.
New Mexico. Another such event, this time in New Mexico, was reported that same year. The report appeared in various American newspapers, but the following transcript is taken from the Fort Worth Gazette (Feb. 4, 1892, p. 1 , col. 4).
A Dog-Child
Raton, N. M., Jan. 27—The wife of a half-breed Indian living near Raton on the line of the Santa Fe railroad gave birth to a child a few days ago that is attracting much attention and exciting great curiosity. The legs of the child are exactly like the legs of a dog—in fact the entire lower part of the body is the body of a dog. The flanks are joined together and the legs and hips are covered with a thick yellow skin. The feet have five toes, but the nails are shaped like the nails of a dog, and under the foot there is a cushion such as a dog has. The child was ten days old before anyone knew anything about it, and then a man who happened to stop at the house discovered it. the father and mother are poor and illiterate and don’t seem to care very much, in fact as the freak has been the means of bringing them quite a little money, they probably have very little regret. It makes a noise that sounds more like the whine of a pup than the cry of a baby. The head and arms were well formed and looked perfectly natural. The legs and feet were then shown. The legs were close to the body doubled up as a dog doubles up his legs when sitting on his haunches. The father says that six months before the birth of the child the mother had been attacked by a large shepherd dog and badly bitten. The fright threw her into convulsions and for three or four months afterwards she continued to have spells and she would fall down and, frothing at the mouth, bark like a dog and scratch at the floor with her hands and feet. For a few weeks before the birth of the child, however, she had appeared to be much better and had not suffered from an attack.
Thus, again, in this case a “maternal impression,” and not hybridization between a human and a dog, is offered as an explanation of the child’s doglike features.
The case just quoted is of interest, because it mimics four other reports in which women supposedly gave birth to composite creatures, like a human child from the navel up, but from there down, like a dog, one at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin in 1873, one at Dechard, Tennessee in 1865, one at Leitmeritz, Bohemia in 1615, and another at Rome in 1493 (these cases are described below).
Article continues below
A dog-human hybrid. Detail from The Witches’ Sabbath by Frans Francken the Younger (1581-1642).
South Dakota. The next report is from the Mitchell Capital (Jul. 30, 1897, p. 1, cols. 3-4), a newspaper published in Mitchell, South Dakota. The story originated with the Watertown Public Opinion, a newspaper published in Watertown, South Dakota.
A Freak of Nature
Watertown Public Opinion: Public Opinion secures this piece of information from sources that warrant the vouching for its accuracy, although names are suppressed for obvious reasons: There reside in the reservation country, northwest of Watertown, among others, a man and wife who command the respect of their neighbors. Recently the woman in question gave birth to a child whose face and general features were those of a dog. Its ears were likewise shaped like a dog’s, while its hands were more like claws than like hands. Its crying was an imitation of the bark of a dog. Otherwise the child was properly formed. It survived but a comparatively short time. Our informant says that the woman was frightened on account of a dog fight several months ago, and this incident is presumed to have wrought the deformity of her child.
Missouri. Another such report appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Mar. 25, 1881, p. 4):
Birth of an Infant with a Dog’s Head and Feet
The astounding rumor that a baby, half human and half dog, had been born in the neighborhood of Eighteenth and Morgan streets this morning was current upon ‘Change, and was regarded as an absurd hoax. A reporter, however, went out to the place indicated, and after a great many inquiries was directed to an old two-story frame house, which had evidently seen better days, which is situated on Orange Alley, the thoroughfare running east and west between Franklin Avenue and Nineteenth Street. A trip was made up the shakiest flight of stairs which it has entered the human mind to conceive, and being careful of the weak places on a porch, the reporter at last secured admittance to a room which served as bedroom, parlor, kitchen and dining-room for a small, but interesting family of African fellow-citizens. A large negro woman, was lying on the bed with a weight of bed-clothing upon her. She is what used to be called a “likely” woman, weighing close to 200 pounds, and displaying an undraped arm of which a coal-heaver or a blacksmith might have been proud.
“I’m looking for Samantha Willis.”
“That’s my name,” said the lady in the bed turning away from the wall and grinning at the scribe.
“I understand that you have had a child?”
“Huh! Huh! I done hab free of um [three of them]. N’f [And if the] ole man doan keep’s mouf [doesn’t keep his mouth] shut, I’ll des turn to an hab free or fo’ mo’! [
I’ll just turn to and have three or four more]”
At this sable sally, the colored ladies and gentlemen about the bed laughed uproariously. Samantha looked to the reporter for more conversation.
“Yes, I heard that,” said he, “but they said that one of them had a queer head!”
“Well, gimme a dime, boss, ‘n I’ll show you the chile; it is queer for sho’.”
The dime changed hands, the coverlet was thrown down, and a little ebony cherub about eight inches long was fished out of the intricacies of the bedding. He was clothed like Lady Godiva in the legend of Coventry, simply with purity, and at first glance there was little to distinguish him from the average African infant. A close inspection showed, however, that his head was exactly like that of a dog. It was covered with fur rather than wool, and the facial contour was just that of a young bull pup’s. The nose and mouth projected almost an inch from the balance of the countenance, and the ears are long, pendulous and like a spaniel’s. It has the power of moving its ears, which it does continuously, and is apparently a strong, healthy child, although Dr. Carstairs says it cannot live. The whole body is covered with very fine and short hair almost like the down on a peach, it is so soft and so almost imperceptible. The hands are all right, but the feet are malformed, there being a very perceptible dew-claw on the left ankle, and the whole foot is that of a dog’s. The right foot is amorphous, simply being a piece of flesh not differentiated into toes. [(The incidence of stump limbs seems to be elevated in distant hybrids.)] The other two children have none of the marks of the dog upon them except their ears, which are pendulous like their brother’s, and their bodies are covered with the same downy fur. Mrs. Willis was attacked by a savage dog about three months ago and badly bitten in the side, and Dr. Carstairs traces the lusus naturae to that cause. He thinks two of the children will live, but that the one who is most strongly marked with canine characteristics will die.
Iowa. The following case, which supposedly occurred in Iowa in the following year, was similar to the preceding one, but the report is brief. It appeared in the Omaha Daily Bee (Apr. 18, 1882, p. 7, col. 5), a newspaper published in Omaha, Nebraska:
A woman at Ottumwa [Iowa], last week, gave birth to five children, part human and part dog. The freak of nature is the subject of much wonderment and comment.
In a lonely cabin on the banks of Otselic Creek [today’s Otselic River], in the town of Willet, Cortland County, may be found a remarkable freak of nature, known throughout the country roundabout as the “dog-faced girl.” Here mother and daughter, named respectively Orilla and Sarah Walls, live alone and in poverty, gaining a precarious support by picking berries and gathering roots and herbs, and from gifts at the hands of the numerous visitors whom curiosity brings to their hut.
The peculiarity of the dog-faced girl’s features lies in the chin, mouth and nose, which protrude from the head and neck to such an excessive and unnatural degree, and in a shape strikingly like a dog’s snout or muzzle. Otherwise she is well formed and fully developed for a girl of fifteen years and is notably robust and active. But she is weak-minded, and the wonderful thing about her imbecility is its canine characteristic in voice and movement.
Up to about ten years old the girl persisted in running about on all fours and in this posture she could outrun any child of her age. Her vocal utterances, also, were marvelously like the barking or howling of a dog. As she approached the period of womanhood she learned to walk erect, and her voice lost something of its canine tone, but her features and utterances are still so unmistakably dog-like as to attract marked attention and wonder.
She has a constant stream of visitors, including physicians and scientists as well as ordinary curiosity mongers, and these are told truthfully that her father who died shortly after her birth, was in no way malformed or peculiar. Her mother is good looking in feature and figure, and ordinarily intelligent. None of the dog-faced girl’s visitors have as yet suggested any plausible theory of the freak that gave her to the world.
Another story about Sarah Walls, quoted below, provides some additional details. It was taken from the Chenango American (Sep. 27, 1888, p. 3, col. 3), a newspaper published in Greene, New York.
A Female Curiosity
One of the most peculiar freaks of nature that has been produced in any country lives with her mother in a small cabin near the banks of Bragg Pond,* about four miles from Willett, Cortland County. It is a girl about fifteen years of age named Sarah Walls, the daughter of a woman whom the denizens of the locality call “Rilla,” but whose full name is said to be Orilla Walls.
The girl excites much curiosity among strangers who happen to meet her in their fishing excursions, because of protruding lower features. Her mouth, nose and chin seems to be merged into the form of a dog’s snout, from which she has gained the sobriquet, “The dog-faced girl,” and is rarely spoken of otherwise. Her laugh consists of a series of short yelps; her speech is almost unintelligible, while intellect is little above that of an idiot.
This lusus Naturae is said to have outgrown many of her canine instincts but sufficient yet remain to make her a veritable curiosity. When still a child she often amused herself by barking, and running on all fours through the woods. It was her delight to sniff at decayed stumps and with her hands tear away the soft wood in search of mice and chipmunks. Her speed through the brush is marvelous, requiring the best efforts of a man to keep her in sight.
She and her mother eke out a scanty living by fishing and picking berries. The mother is now about fifty years old. Though very illiterate, she is social and good-natured, and does not appear to think there is anything remarkable in her offspring. The girl is of medium size, well developed, and save for her dog-like face would be considered attractive. —Binghamton Republican, Sept. 15.
The case of Sarah Walls, with her dog snout, is reminiscent of a much earlier case in which a child with the snout of a pig was reported as having been born in Eisleben, Germany in 1669. Similarly, in 1857, in the Australian state of Victoria, a child with the upper bill of a duck was supposedly born in the town of Kilmore. Another such case is that of Eugène Boudou, L’homme à la Tête de Veau, who, according to photographic evidence, also had a mouth like that of an animal.
Illinois. The next article is from the Dodge City Times (Aug. 8, 1890, p. 1, col. 1), a newspaper published in Dodge City, Kansas:
A Baby With a Dog’s Head
Cairo, Ill., Aug. 4.—A lady named McLaughlin, residing on Twenty-first street, this city, recently gave birth to a child whose face and head was the image of a bulldog, the rest of the monstrosity retaining the normal condition and appearance of a healthy child. Sometime past the father of the child purchased a large bulldog, whose care he entrusted to the wife. About ten days ago the dog became vicious and frightened the woman so much so that she took to her bed. Yesterday the monstrosity was born. The child died a few hours after birth.
A brief notice of the same event appeared in the Daily Tobacco Leaf Chronicle (Aug. 2, 1890, p. 2, col. 3), a newspaper published in Clarksville, Tennessee: “A child with a well formed dog’s head was born at Cairo Wednesday. It lived several hours.”
Tennessee. Another such report appeared that same year in the Asheville, North Carolina, Daily Citizen (Jul. 30, 1890, p. 1, col. 6):
In an old sack near a house which has been unoccupied for months a Memphis [Tennessee] policeman found a monstrosity in the shape of an animal with the face of a man and the head of a dog. It had been tenderly wrapped in linen and weighed about five pounds.
A Wonderful Nondescript Found at Dechard, Tennessee
On Tuesday morning, about seven o’clock, a wonderful nondescript was found lying on the top of a wood pile in the rear of the hotel at Dechard. The thing was in appearance, half human and half canine. The upper half of the phenonmenon resembled the body and head of an infant a few days old. With the exception of the face and hands, this portion was covered with light curly hair, which, on top of the head, was fully two inches long. The hands and face were entirely exempt from hair, and were, in every way similar to an infant’s. The lower half of this wonder corresponded exactly with the hind quarters of a dog, including a tail about twelve inches long, and covered with curly hair, similar to that on the head of the prodigy. It was alive when found, and was regarded by the inhabitants with mingled wonder and horror. They were undecided whether it were not the holier work to burn the marvel in the flames. It was finally taken possession of by two army surgeons, who were stationed in the town.
Oregon. Another, very brief, notice reporting a separate event appeared in the Lebanon, Oregon, Express (Aug. 10, 1894, p. 3, col. 1): “A child was recently born in Albin‡a with the head of a dog.”
‡ Albina was a historical American city that was consolidated into Portland, Oregon in 1891.
Ohio. An additional single-sentence report was published in the Bossier Banner (Jul. 27, 1867, p. 4, col. 2), a newspaper published in Bellevue, Louisiana: “A special to the Cincinnati Commercial says that on the 26th inst. ‘A child was born in Milwaukee with a perfect dog’s head.’”
The following report is from the Miami Union (Apr. 17, 1880). a newspaper published in Troy, Ohio:
REMARKABLE MONSTROSITY
A Child Born With the Head and Face of a Bulldog
Mr. C. F. Grosvenor, Troy correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette sends the following to his paper of the 14th inst. It is a good description of one of the most remarkable monstrosities on record.
Dr. John G. Senour 1855-1904
Troy, O., April 13.—A singular and somewhat horrible case of the birth of a monstrosity occurred at or near Nashville, [an unincorporated place] in [southwestern] Miami County [Ohio], last Friday, April 9. Dr. John G. Senour, of Troy, was called to attend a lady in child birth, and the result was a stillborn monster — a male child having a face resembling a bulldog, but otherwise fully developed. It seems that the mother at the period of two months gestation had received a fright caused by the shooting of a bulldog, and the child was delivered at seven months. The countenance is an almost exact imitation of a bulldog, with hair lip [sic], flat nose, flattened eyes, large mouth, and the head set upon the shoulders with no development of neck. There was a peculiar hole in the back of the head [a case of anencephaly and/or spina bifida?], said to be at the same position where the bullet struck the dog, and on the back of the child is a mark like that left on the neck of the dog by the burning of the powder. Dr. Senour has the child preserved in alcohol, and it has been visited by many of our citizens, and is, altogether, a remarkable case of this kind.
Another report about the 1880 birth near Troy appeared in the Opelousas, Louisiana Courier (May 22, 1880, p. 3, col. 4):
Another Monstrosity
A correspondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer, writing from Troy, Ohio, says: Your correspondent had exhibited to him this morning a monstrosity the most wonderful. It is a child (born dead, of course) with a dog’s head. It was of about seven months gestation, and is in all respects except the head a perfectly formed boy weighing two and a half pounds. The parents are plain country folks, living about eight miles from this place, both husband and wife young, the husband about twenty-four years of age and the wife at the time of the marriage, one year ago, only fifteen years of age. The wife is a large, well-developed woman, young as she is. At the two months’ gestation of the mother, last November, the father had a young bull-pup, which from some cause had become cross and ugly and the husband had often threatened to kill him, until finally one day the father took down his gun, and against the protest of his wife, who was present, shot the dog in the back of the head, just where the head joins on to the neck. The blood spurted from the neck and the wife fainted. The monster is in charge of Dr. Lenour [sic], who attended the lady during her labor, and has been viewed by many persons. It will be a great curiosity in the medical fraternity.
Special to the Herald.
Waco, Aug. 16.—Lottie Campbell, colored, twenty-one years old, yesterday gave birth to a monstrosity. It had the face of a child, but a nose that had no bone or bridge and only one nostril, a small round hole looking outward instead of downward, as in the natural organ. The hair began at the eyebrows and covered the entire head; was very long, straight and thick, resembling a Newfoundland pup. The jaws were also covered with long hair and flesh, and hung down like a dog’s upper lip. The spinal column was covered with very thick hair and was pasted like on a fat dog’s back. The collar bone and chest were also covered with hair of astonishing growth for an infant. … The child, at the proper time, weighed five pounds, and lived four hours.
Salzburg. In the Salzburger Chronik (Nov. 1, 1867, p. 189, col. 2), a German language newspaper published in Salzburg, Austria, it is stated that “not long since” a woman had given birth to a child that had a dog’s head and a breast that was woolly like a sheep, but that was otherwise normal.
Vermont. The following two-sentence notice, which refers to an event that allegedly occurred in the town of Morgan, Vermont, is from the Orleans Independent Standard (Jun. 29, 1869, p. 3, col. 2), a newspaper published in Irasburgh, Orleans County, Vermont: "A lady in this town recently gave birth to a child with a dog’s head. It was permitted to die." Morgan is a town in the eastern part of Orleans County, northeastern Vermont.
Arkansas. Another report about canine babes being birthed by a woman appeared in the Memphis, Tennessee, Daily Appeal (Aug. 14, 1873, p. 1, col. 4):
LUSUS NATURAE
Extraordinary Freak of Nature Near Arkadelphia, Ark.—Darwinian Theory Reversed
Arkadelphia, Ark., August 13.—Mollie Holman, a negro woman living about one mile from here, whose husband died a year ago, gave birth on Monday night to five deformities, each weighing about three pounds. The face of these wonderful creatures most resemble a monkey, with the body and limbs of a dog, sparsely covered with hair. They were alive this morning, and are fondly nursed by the awe-stricken mother. Our medical corps will visit the curious offspring this evening.
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. That same year, the following notice is from the Watertown, Wisconsin, Republican (Jul. 30, 1873, p. 4, col. 2):
The Beaver Dam [Wisconsin] Argus reports that on Thursday night a woman in that city was delivered of a monstrosity—half human and half canine, the head, shoulders, arms, and upper part of the body being a perfect formation of a child, while the lower part of the body was as perfectly in the form of a dog.
A description of a dog-human conjoined twin, birthed by a bitch in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1801, is given in the article on conjoined twins.
Historical reports about human-dog hybrids
There are quite a few early reports about dog-human hybrids by physicians and scholars. For example, an account of a canid-human hybrid is given by the eighteenth-century French physician Jean-Ferapie Dufieu. While listing the various odd cases he had encountered during the course of his work, he mentions the following (Dufieu 1763, p. 229):
At Lyon in 1757 I saw a monster with the head of a wolf, but with all the remaining members of the body like those of a human being. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original French.]
Bartholin 1616-1680
Copenhagen. The Danish physician and anatomist Thomas Bartholin (1673, pp. 56-57) reported that a child with a dog’s head had recently been born in the city of Copenhagen, where he was then residing, and that several such births had occurred in that city, though the parents for fear of punishment had done their best to prevent it from becoming public knowledge. He also describes a case, that of a conjoined triplet birth produced by a certain Catharina Stein, the wife of a cobbler, in the city of Drachenberg in Silesia on April 22, 1652. It supposedly had three heads, one of which was like a wolf (see Bartholin 1661, vol. 6, XLIX, p. 278-279).
Paris. The French physician Cosme Viardel (1748, pp. 227-233) gives an eyewitness account describing how he delivered a child with the head of a fox in Paris in 1667. According to the description given, the child was otherwise normal.
Nierstein. The chronicler Eberhard Werner Happel (Historischer Kern oder so genandte kurtze Chronica, 1690, p. 94) states that on October 2, 1681, a woman at Nierstein in Germany gave birth to a child with a large dog’s head. A separate case from the same period is mentioned in Nitzschka (1685, p. 465).
Paullini (1643-1712)
Zacchias (1584-1659)
Bavaria. And the German physician Christian Franz Paullini (1688, p. 49) describes a case of a Bavarian woman who, in the year of 1635, gave birth to a stillborn “child,” supposedly having
a head entirely like that of a dog, but hairless, a lolling tongue, the legs of a dog in the place of arms, and a short tail; the remainder of the body being like that of a human. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original Latin.]
Messina. A separate case was reported that same year far to the south of Bavaria. In a letter appearing in an appendix of Paul Zacchias’ Quaestiones medico-legales, the Italian physician and botanist Pietro Castelli (1574-1662) gives the following account of an ostensible human-dog hybrid born to a woman in the city of Messina on December 26, 1635 (translated in de Ceglia 2014):
It was shaped like a dog and its sacrum seemed very wide and full, but without a tail. The skin or, better, the cutis, was completely hairless, ruddy and highly tenuous, only in this was it similar to a human. Instead, its head, considering its shape and the position of the eyes, could be more easily compared to that of a bird than to that of a dog, although the ears were canine, the right one more oblong than the left one, sticking straight up. In place of the nose it had a wide, pendulous membrane, which, once dried, remained erect. It had a small, round mouth with the two lower incisors. Its front feet were reminiscent of those of a dog, but without nails; instead, the rear feet were truly monstrous: they were made of four oblong fistulas, of equal size and empty, but osseous, some of which had a sort of round plug at the end. Its abdomen was swollen and livid. I immediately eviscerated it, but, since the entrails were putrid and very fetid, I could not study them carefully. I only observed that the left kidney was very large, but I did not see the right one: I was not surprised since I was investigating amidst decay and nauseating stench. Likewise, I was not able to recognize its sex, but it seemed to me to be a female. The length of the cadaver from its clavicle to the coccyx was a handbreadth, and from head to toe a hand-breadth and a half. Then, with proper care, I dried the body, which I keep in my museum, complete and displayable.
A change of opinion
It’s of interest that de Ceglia 2014, p. 133 says that over the years, Zacchias, who at one time had some doubts about whether human-animal hybrids were possible, “would become more and more convinced and finally he would declare: ‘I was previously of that opinion, and now, I persevere much more in the [opinion] that nothing can prevent it that from the mixture of human seed with beastly seed some generation can follow.’” (de Ceglia’s translation of a passage in Quaestiones, Vol. III, Cons. XXII, p. 28).
Zacchias, who was a teacher of medical science and forensic medicine, had been consulted by judges in Messina regarding whether the birth could have been the result of hybridization between the woman in question and a dog. In addition, Castelli commented that
the cadaver with its occiput broken was brought to me two days after the birth. The father said that while it was emerging from the uterus the mother herself had pulled its head, and that it had broken. But, for my part, I suspect that it was deliberately crushed because it was a monster. [Translated in de Ceglia 2014.]
Leitmeritz. A German chronicle (quoted in Schurig, 1732, p. 61) states that in the city of Leitmeritz in Bohemia (now Litoměřice in the Czech Republic) in 1615,
An event occurred in which a woman, who had had relations with an English hound, gave birth to a creature that was human from head to navel, but the remaining half was dog, which shocked many who saw it. The mother was at once imprisoned after the delivery. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original German.]
This creature, then, would have been similar to those described in four other reports on this page (Rome 1493, Tennessee in 1865, Wisconsin 1873, and New Mexico 1892). The following case (Zeitern) is also of a generally similar nature, except in that it is also a case of double-headed conjoined twins.
Schenck’s depiction of the Zeitern birth
Zeitern. The German physician Johann Georg Schenck von Grafenberg (c. 1560 - 1620) reports and pictures a very unusual birth, which, he says, had two heads, and arms without hands (see image right). He says (Schenck 1609, p. 20) this creature was birthed on August 23, 1599, by a woman living in the village of Zeitern, a mile from Brussels.
There is, however, some confusion with regard to the report because he alleges its heads and legs were like an ape’s, and its body, like a human being’s. And yet, his illustration shows legs like those of a dog, not an ape, whereas the faces could just as well be a human’s as an ape’s. Really, they are even more like a human since the pictured faces have rather human-like noses.
So it may be that the general lack of knowledge about apes at that early date, misled Schenck into saying the pictured legs looked like those of an ape rather than of a dog. However, he does say that a dog’s tail was present, as can be seen in the picture. Therefore his illustration can be reasonably interpreted as a creature with two human-like heads, a human-like body (albeit with stump arms), but with doglike parts, from the navel down, including the tail of a dog.
§ The absence of one or more appendages, or portions of appendages (stump limbs), seems to be more common in distant hybrids. In the Zeitern case this tendency, then, would be exemplified in the absence of hands.
Tonndorf. In his chronicle of Thuringia, Newe vollkommene Thüringische Chronica (1613, vol. 3, p. 147), Johann Binhart records that at 4 a.m. on November 1, 1556, the wife of a potter in Tonndorf, Germany gave birth to an offspring with mixed human and canine features.
Fortunio Liceti
1577-1657
Avignon. Galileo’s friend, the Italian scientist Fortunio Liceti describes a dog-human born at Avignon in France:
In his Miscellanies [the Italian scholar Hieronymus] Magius [c. 1523-1572] relates that at Avignon, in 1543, after a connection of like nature, a woman gave birth to a monster, having indeed the head of a human being, but the ears, neck, forelimbs, paws, sexual organs, and other parts of a dog. The woman actually admitted her pregnancy to have been initiated by the dog. And so, in expiation of her sins, by order of Francis, King of the French [i.e., Francis I (reigned 1515-1547)], she was soon thereafter (July 31) consigned to the flames, along with her dog lover. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original Latin.]
Magius’s original account of the French birth reads as follows (see Magius 1564, p. 61):
It is recorded that in 1543 at Avignon, from intercourse of a similar nature, a monster was produced with the head of a normal human being, but with the ears, neck, legs, paws, genitalia and other parts of a dog … Soon thereafter, then, on the 31st of July, by the decree of Francis, King of France, both the hound and the mother were consigned to the flames. Furthermore, many other, not very different, cases occur. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original Latin.]
Benedetto Varchi c. 1503 - 1565
The Italian historian Benedetto Varchi (c. 1503-1565), who also described this hybrid, claimed (see Varchi 1834, p. 152) that much of its body was “covered in long black hair like that of the dog that the mother had confessed to be the father” (“coperte di pelo lungo e nero come era il cane, col quale confessò poi essersi giacciuta quella tal donna che l’aveva partorito”) and that “it lived so long that it was taken from Avignon to His Most Christian Majesty, King Francis, in Marseille” (“Visse tanto, che fu portato da Avignone a Marsiglia al cristianissimo Re Francesco”). Given travel times of the day and the fact that Marseille is about 100 kilometers from Avignon, this last statement would suggest this creature was sufficiently viable to have lived for at least a few days.
Leceti’s depiction of the Roman birth.
Ambroise Paré c. 1510 – 1590
Rome. The French surgeon and anatomist Ambroise Paré (Paré 1982, p. 67) writes that, “In the year 1493 a child [was born] having, from the navel up,
upper parts similar in form and shape to the mother, and it was very complete, without Nature’s having omitted anything; and, from the navel down, all its lower parts were also similar in form and shape to the animal, that was the father: which (just as Volaterranus writes) was sent to the pope who reigned at that time [Alexander VI].
At Rome, an unmarried girl gave birth to a son who was half dog, which was human from the navel up, but from there down, like a dog. This unnatural event is recorded by Volaterranus, Cardan, Paré and several others.
The 1493 event received more attention than most cases, apparently because it occurred at Rome. It is also mentioned by Bartholin (Historia anatomicarum rariorum, Hafniae, 1657) who states that “At Rome under the pontificate of Alexander [Cesare Borgia], a woman bore a half-dog … according to the writing of Jo. Langium I. 2. Epist. Med. 9" (translated in Zirkle 1935: 56). Simeone Maiolo (Dies caniculares, vol. I, 42) also refers to this birth. Johannes Lange, the author cited by Bartholin, himself cites Volaterranus (Lange 1605, p. 377).
Note: The reported configuration of the Roman birth (human above, canine below) is the same as that described in four other reports on this page (Leitmeritz 1615, Dechard, Tennessee in 1865, Wisconsin 1873, and New Mexico 1892). Another mention of such a hybrid appears in Lynch (1662), who states that “In 1433 there was born of a woman a monster, of human form down to the waist, the lower parts perfectly resembling a dog in hair, tail, feet and shape” (translated in Kelly 1850, pp. 269-271). Here, however, "1493" was probably intended, with "1433" being a typo.
Tuscany. Liceti (1634, p. 185) mentions another such birth, in Tuscany, described by Volaterranus.
Wikipedia describes the Commentariorum urbanorum, as “an encyclopedia of all subjects known at that time, prepared with great care.” Volaterranus himself might have actually seen the product of the 1503 birth since he was then living in Tuscany at Volterra, the town for which he is named.
Volaterranus writes (Commentariorum urbanorum [1530, XXXII, p. 374]) that under the reign of Pope Pius III [whose pontificate followed immediately upon that of Alexander VI and lasted only 26 days (22 Sept. - 18 Oct. 1503)] in Tuscany a certain girl, because she had been accustomed to lie with a dog, became pregnant and gave birth to a child who was half dog, that is, it had the fore- and hind-paws of a dog, as well as the ears, but was otherwise like a human; the issue of how the girl should atone for this sin was referred to the pope. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original Latin. Here Liceti closely follows Volaterranus.]
A human-dog hybrid? (Source: Aldrovandi)
Baetica. And in his book Monstrorum historia (1642, p. 378) Aldrovandi pictures what may have been a human-dog hybrid (see image at right), which he says was born in Baetica, a region of southern Spain. However, he does not identify it as a dog-human and, in fact, supplies few details of any kind. Presumably the birth occurred sometime during Aldrovandi's lifetime, in the sixteenth century. The idea that it may have been a human-dog mix, proposed here, is purely speculative and is primarily based on the humanlike shape of its ear.
Medieval cases
Rolevinck’s cynocephalic, as pictured in Sorbini (1570, p. 30)
Rolevinck. The Carthusian monk and historian Werner Rolevinck (1425-1502) mentions a monster with a human body and a dogs head as having existed in the year 914 (Rolevinck Fasciculus Temporum, 1474).
Liège. A case that received far more attention than Rolevinck’s was reported from what is now Belgium. According to the Jesuit Bartholomaeus Fisen (1591-1649), in 1125, a peasant woman near Liège (in the Hesbaye†) gave birth to a conjoined twin (Historia Ecclesiae Leodiensis, p. 357, A. 1125). Fisen says it was composed of two nearly complete bodies—one, that of a child, the other, that of a dog—fused at the back so that they faced in opposite directions.
†Lycosthenes (1557, pp. 404-405), who is cited by several later authors, claims that this birth took place in Albania in the year 1126. However, it seems that he mistook the Latin name for Hesbaye, Haſbania, (which Fisen specifically mentions) for Albania, due to the similarity between the long s symbol, ſ, and a lower case L. Fisen makes it clear that 1125 is the correct date, not 1126.
A pair of conjoined twins described by Conrad Lycosthenes (1557, p. 352). The text in the figure may be translated as follows: “Towards the end of the reign of Emperor Lothar, the commander of the Saxons, a certain woman produced a monstrous birth, that is, a kind of man and dog connected in a single body, joined at the back with the spines solidly merged. The emperor died soon thereafter.” As can be seen in the image above, Lycosthenes says this event occurred in 854 A.D. Holy Roman Emperor Lothar I died the following year. This case is sufficiently similar to the case reported as having occurred in Liège in 1125 (see text above), that there is reason to wonder whether the two reports may refer to the same event, but with one or both dates being given in error. Lycosthenes served as a professor at the University of Basel from 1545 until his premature death at the age of 43.
Women giving birth to dogs
It is not very long since I received a letter from a distinguished member of the profession asking me whether, in my opinion, I thought it possible for a woman to give birth to a dog.
Stalpart vander Wiel’s picture of a hairless puppy, which he claimed was birthed by a woman. (source)
Brescia
In his Supplementum chronicorum (Paris, 1535, p. 382), the Italian chronicler Jacopo Filippo Foresti (1434-1520) records that at Brescia in Lombardy a woman gave birth to a dog in the year 1471, a case that parallels the cases reported by Stalpart vander Wiel and by Niels Heldvad at left.
In his Observations, a compilation of rare medical cases, Dutch physician Stalpart vander Wiel says that in 1677 at The Hague, a midwife, Elisabeth Tomboy, assisted a woman in giving birth to a living puppy (Observation LXXII), a female. His report includes a picture (see above). As in Castelli’s case quoted above, vander Wiel says the weird offspring was hairless (“pilis carentem”). “Remarkably, however, the woman remained pregnant,” he says, “and, after 14 weeks, gave birth to a very healthy and quite normal son” (translated from the original Latin by E. M. McCarthy).
Another such case, in which a woman was allegedly delivered of three puppies that died soon after birth, is recorded by the German chronicler Niels Heldvad (1564-1634). Supposedly it happened in the Duchy of Schleswig at the outset of the seventeenth century (see his Sylva Chronologica Circuli Baltici, 1625, Hamburg, p. 265). Among the events that took place in the year 1600, he lists the following:
A girl at Schwabstedt [a municipality that today lies in Schleswig-Holstein] became pregnant and gave birth to three puppies. They died soon after birth. Supposedly, she had had congress with an English hound. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original German. Confirmation from a different source: Nitzschka (1685,
p. 465).]
Von Dreyhaupt 1699-1768
The German historian Johann Christoph von Dreyhaupt, in his treatise on his native Halle (Beschreibung des Saalkreises, 1755, vol. I, p. 646), states that on March 5, 1646 a woman gave birth to “what appeared to be a dog” (“die wie ein Hund anzusehen gewesen”) at Moritzburg Castle in Saxony.
And writers during the early scientific era (e.g., link, link) say “the monk Ulrich” claimed that in the year 1000 a shepherdess at Visbek in Germany lay with a hound and subsequently gave birth two puppies.
But this last story is so old as to verge on myth. It seems we have reached the edge of the map of knowledge and arrived at the land where doubt and fable reign. And such seems to be the nature of the following account of a race of cynocephali given by Marco Polo.
Angamanain is a very large island. The people are without a king and are idolaters, and no better than wild beasts. And I assure you all the men of this island of Angamanain have heads like dogs, and teeth and eyes likewise; in fact, in the face they are all just like big mastiff dogs! They have a quantity of spices; but they are a most cruel generation, and eat everybody that they can catch, if not of their own race.
A non-reversible cross?
All of the various cases thus far cited have involved hybrids supposedly birthed by women, that is, no dog mothers were mentioned. From this, one might easily conclude that this cross non-reversible. However, there is a case, which apparently took place in 2007, reporting a dog producing a stillborn “puppy” with human characteristics. Few details about this birth are available but the photos are in fact suggestive of human parentage. And yet, for only a single case among so many to involve a dog mother—and that single specimen, moreover, to be stillborn—does seem to indicate that there is strong directionality to this cross. Perhaps this, then, is why the Babylonian Talmud says a widow should not rear dogs, but says nothing about widowers?
There are, of course, many who believe that such births as those listed above cannot be hybrids between a human and an animal. People who take this stance argue these are wholly human infants that are merely described as half-dog because they have certain dog-like characteristics. In other words, there is an assumption that traits falling within the normal range of human variation are being falsely attributed to canine parentage. This sort of argument dates back to Aristotle, who wrote that in such cases,
people say that the child has the head of a ram or a bull, and so on with other animals, as that a calf has the head of a child or a sheep that of an ox … but they are none of the things they are said to be; there is only some similarity, such as may arise even where there is no defect of growth. [excerpt from Aristotle’s The Generation of Animals, (IV, iii), translated by Arthur Platt]
But one wonders what Aristotle would have said if confronted with a birth such as the one Magius and Varchi claim occurred in Avignon in 1543 — an infant with a human face, but otherwise mostly dog-like, though born of a woman. And what would he say of Stalpart vander Wiel’s hairless puppy, also supposedly birthed by a woman? Would it be reasonable for him to propose that such things fall within the normal range of what we would call human variation?
Come on, poor babe:
Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens
To be thy nurses! Wolves and bears, they say
Casting their savageness aside have done
Like offices of pity.
——A Winter’s Tale
Feral children
In connection with dog-human hybrids, the various stories dating from ancient times to recent, of human beings being raised by dogs and wolves are not without interest. The story of Romulus and Remus is, of course, famous. And in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon notes that the Turks, too, claimed “that their founder, like Romulus, was suckled by a she-wolf.” Similarly, the Roman historian Justinus claimed that Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, was raised by a dog.
An account of a race of cynocephali living in India, given by the Greek physician and historian Ctesias of Cnidus (5th cent. B.C.):
“On these mountains there live men with the head of a dog, whose clothing is the skin of wild beasts. They speak no language, but bark like dogs, and in this manner make themselves understood by each other. Their teeth are larger than those of dogs, their nails like those of these animals, but longer and rounder. They inhabit the mountains as far as the river Indus. Their complexion is swarthy. They are extremely just, like the rest of the Indians with whom they associate. They understand the Indian language but are unable to converse, only barking or making signs with their hands and fingers by way of reply... They live on raw meat. They number about 120,000.
…
“The Cynocephali living on the mountains do not practice any trade but live by hunting. When they have killed an animal they roast it in the sun. They also rear numbers of sheep, goats, and asses, drinking the milk of the sheep and whey made from it. They eat the fruit of the Siptakhora, whence amber is procured, since it is sweet. They also dry it and keep it in baskets, as the Greeks keep their dried grapes. They make rafts which they load with this fruit together with well-cleaned purple flowers and 260 talents of amber, with the same quantity of the purple dye, and thousand additional talents of amber, which they send annually to the king of India. "They exchange the rest for bread, flour, and cotton stuffs with the Indians, from whom they also buy swords for hunting wild beasts, bows, and arrows, being very skillful in drawing the bow and hurling the spear. They cannot be defeated in war, since they inhabit lofty and inaccessible mountains. Every five years the king sends them a present of 300,000 bows, as many spears, 120,000 shields, and 50,000 swords.
“They do not live in houses, but in caves. They set out for the chase with bows and spears, and as they are very swift of foot, they pursue and soon overtake their quarry. The women have a bath once a month, the men do not have a bath at all, but only wash their hands. They anoint themselves three times a month with oil made from milk and wipe themselves with skins. The clothes of men and women alike are not skins with the hair on, but skins tanned and very fine. The richest wear linen clothes, but they are few in number. They have no beds, but sleep on leaves or grass. He who possesses the greatest number of sheep is considered the richest, and so in regard to their other possessions. All, both men and women, have tails above their hips, like dogs, but longer and more hairy. They are just, and live longer than any other men, 170, sometimes 200 years.”
Note: Ctesias never traveled to India and seems to have based his description of that country solely on Persian accounts.
Hoax. A supposed case of a dog-human that appears to have been an intentional hoax was reported widely in American papers, first in 1881, and then again in 1890. The first report was a story about a twelve-year-old dog-headed boy that supposedly was kept from public sight by embarrassed parents living somewhere near Greensburg, Pennsylvania. No witnesses were named, so the piece was clearly anecdotal. In 1890, the story made the rounds again when some unidentified person wired the Pittsburg papers with news that the dog-boy had died. This time, the place of residence of the the dog-boy and his family was given as near the city of Indiana, Pennsylvania, which is not far from Greensburg. And in these reports the names of the parents were given as Charles and Bella Leach. However, searches with those names on Ancestry.com revealed no such persons living in the vicinity of Indiana, Pennsylvania at the time in question. Moreover, a week after the 1890 stories first appeared in many newspapers, a newspaper actually published in the city of Indiana, the Democrat (Jun. 26, 1890, p. 3, col. 1) published a notice notice disavowing the whole story, which is reproduced here:
One example of each of the two dubious stories that circulated in 1881 and in 1890 appear below:
The following is from the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Capitolian (Mar. 12, 1881, p. 1).
A CHILD WITH A DOG’S HEAD
There is a singular freak of nature near Greensburg [Pennsylvania], which has never been made public. There is a family residing near there which has a child that was born in human form, with the exception that the child had a dog’s head on its body. It is now in its twelfth year, hale and hearty, but barks like a dog. The family served, at the time of his birth, a death warrant on the doctor attending and a neighbor woman who had been called in for the occasion, stated that they would be killed if they ever revealed the misfortune. There are five other children in the family, who are all perfect and intelligent. How this fact reached the ear of the writer is that a party who was on its way to Colorado revealed it to him just before departing. He said he visited the house one day on business, but found the parents out and the children were too small to explain intelligently their whereabouts. In looking about the house to see whether they were in any of the rooms, he opened the door of the room in which the monstrosity was confined; after taking a good look at it he was about to close the door when the parents came in at another door. The father immediately drew his revolver on the man, and there made him promise never to reveal the fact or then and there meet his death. He answered in the affirmative, and there learned that while the mother was enciente [i.e., pregnant], she had visited a neighboring family who had a large, ferocious dog, which attacked her. The family says that no one living has seen the child but the doctor and the female attendant upon its birth, and themselves. The matter has made their life a torture, and while they have prayed daily for its death, it continues to remain hearty. It barks occasionally and raises quite a furor in the room, but to prevent the public from suspecting anything, they constantly keep several dogs about the place. The family are well-to-do and own quite a valuable farm.
The following, an example of the later reports about the dog-boy's death, is from the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Weekly Democrat (Jun. 13, 1890, p. 8, col. 4):
FREAK OF NATURE
Westmoreland Democrat†
Twenty years ago a boy baby was born to Charles and Bella Leach, of Indiana County. The infant was normal in every respect save as to the head, which bore a close resemblance to that of a puppy. The monstrosity was kept closely confined. It never spoke, and saw nothing of the world. Death mercifully came to its relief last week. Of late years the head grew much like that of a fox. The mother, previous to the child’s birth, was frightened by such an animal while picking berries in the woods.
† The Westmoreland Democrat, the newspaper originating this report, was published in the city of Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Westmoreland County is adjacent to Indiana County, where this birth supposedly occurred.
A dog-human hybrid (source: 
In Eastern Orthodox iconography, St. Christopher was often depicted as a dog-human hybrid.
A medieval depiction of five cynocephali (dog-human hybrids).
Saint with dog-human hybrids (Kievan Psalter, 1397, artist unknown).
An early asiatic representation of cynocephali (Zakariya al-Qazwini, Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing, 13th century).
Petrus Gonsalvus (c. 1537 – 1618) and his wife Catherine (artist: Joris Hoefnagel). The well-documented Petrus comes close to fitting the bill for a cynocephalus. It's thought that this couple were the original inspiration for Beauty and the Beast.
A dog-human hybrid. Detail from The Witches’ Sabbath by Frans Francken the Younger (1581-1642).
Dr. John G. Senour
Bartholin
Paullini
Zacchias
Schenck’s depiction of the Zeitern birth
Fortunio Liceti
Benedetto Varchi
Leceti’s depiction of the Roman birth.
Ambroise Paré
A human-dog hybrid?
Rolevinck’s cynocephalic, as pictured in Sorbini (
A dog-human conjoined twin (Source: 
Von Dreyhaupt
An ostensible dog-human hybrid birthed by a dog in 2007. This specimen is reminiscent of some of the 
