The Plague Dogs
Encyclopedia
The Plague Dogs is the third novel by Richard Adams, author of Watership Down
, about two dog
s who escape an animal testing
facility and are subsequently pursued by both the government
and the media. It was first published in 1977
, and features a few location maps drawn by Alfred Wainwright
, a fellwalker and author.
station in the Lake District
in England
, where they had been horribly mistreated. They live on their own with help from a red fox
, or "tod," who speaks to them in a Geordie
dialect. After the starving dogs attack some sheep on the fells, they are reported as ferocious man-eating monsters by a journalist
. A great dog hunt follows, which is later intensified with the fear that the dogs could be carriers of a dangerous bioweapon, such as the bubonic plague
.
), on the remote hill farm of Lawson Park, now run as an artist residency by the contemporary art organisation Grizedale Arts
.
A shaggy, large black mongrel, born in the laboratory where inhumane experiments were performed on him and his companion, Snitter
. Snitter escapes with Rowf, only to find that living in the great outdoors is quite challenging. Rowf is usually a downtrodden fellow, quite old and cynical, since he has had a hard life and never met a decent human. As a result of the experimentation, he has gained an abnormal fear of water
. Toward the end of his travels, his time with Snitter has him believing in something more.
Snitter
A black and white (white, chocolate, and tan in the film) fox terrier
. Unlike his friend, Rowf, Snitter was once settled into a home. After he lost his master in a road accident with a truck, he was sold to the laboratory. The scientists in the lab have performed numerous brain surgeries on Snitter, merging his conscious and subconscious mind. This causes him to have nightmarish flashes and dreams at random times, whether he is asleep or awake. Frequently he hallucinates the sight of his master approaching, and turns round in joyful greeting, only to find there is no one there. Once he and Rowf escape the lab, Snitter is determined to find another home for himself and his friend. Snitter is the most hopeful character in the book, and the most mysterious, since he can have several strange, but beautiful ramblings of future events and of past ones. As he and Rowf are driven far out to sea, he sees something: Freedom.
The Tod
A red fox encountered by Snitter and Rowf early in the story. He speaks not in the local dialect, but in that of Upper Tyneside, having been born "far ahint th' Cross Fell". He forges an uneasy friendship with the dogs, teaching them hunting and survival skills in return for a share of the kill. The friendship is stronger with Snitter, who understands both the tod's speech and his mode of thought. Rowf, by contrast, "can't understand a word he says," distrusts his "sly, sneaking" ways, and believes that the tod is taking advantage of his strength to provide himself with easy meals in return for advice without which Rowf feels he and Snitter would be better off. For a while the trio survive reasonably comfortably, the dogs killing sheep and fowls under the tod's guidance, but eventually the dogs' indiscreet ways drive him away, which together with the onset of winter marks the start of a much tougher phase of the dogs' fight for survival. In the book, when Rowf drives him away, he is rejoined by Snitter; however, as a pack of foxhounds closes in on the trio, he tells Snitter to run, using all his myriad of tricks to distract the pack from the pair, but is ultimately cornered and killed. The character's death is not explicitly depicted, although one of the soldiers is described as holding up his body.
Digby Driver
A newspaper reporter for the fictional London Orator. He is an amoral, self-centred man, writing wildly sensationalist articles with only the sketchiest grounding in fact and using blackmail to extort background information about bio-weapon research at ARSE. The media hysteria he creates causes panic among the local populace and eventually moves the government to deploy the army to exterminate the dogs.
Dr. Boycott
A senior researcher at ARSE who was in charge of the experimental programme which involved Rowf. He is callous and unfeeling, with no sympathy for either the animals in his experiments or his subordinate, Stephen Powell. His inept handling of the situation arising from the dogs' escape serves both to antagonise the local farmers, who are losing sheep to the dogs, and to provide grist to Digby Driver's mill despite his efforts to do the opposite.
Stephen Powell
Dr. Boycott's subordinate, somewhat nervous and fearful of his chief, and evidently possessed of sympathy for his experimental charges which he dares not express for fear of being regarded as an unsound scientist by Dr. Boycott. It appears that his original motivation for working in an area which he evidently finds uncomfortable was to help find a cure for the mysterious disease from which his daughter Stephanie is slowly dying, but he has ended up being assigned to totally unrelated research and his main motivation now is simply to maintain a stable home in an area where his daughter is happy (i.e., the Lake District). Eventually his conscience gets the better of him during a pointless sensory deprivation experiment
on a monkey. He steals the monkey and takes it home, quits his job, and plans to get local employment as "a teacher or something." Early in the story he is given a lift by Digby Driver and, not realizing that he is a reporter, chats freely about his work in response to Driver's questioning. The repercussions of this inadvertent leak are another factor in his decision to quit his job.
Dr. Goodner
A researcher at ARSE carrying out secret bio-weapon research for the Ministry of Defence. He is German by birth and was a "researcher" in Buchenwald during the Second World War, but has managed to conceal this information. Digby Driver finds out about Goodner's past through contacts at the Orator and uses the information to blackmail him into revealing details of his research, specifically that he was researching the bubonic plague, which Driver uses as the foundation of his sensationalist scaremongering.
Harry Tyson
The odd-job man at ARSE, in charge of feeding and cleaning the animals and general caretaking duties. It is his carelessness in neglecting to close Rowf's cage properly that allows the dogs to escape, but he successfully conceals his mistake by sabotaging the catch of the cage before anyone notices the missing animals.
Geoffrey Westcott
A local bank clerk who is something of a recluse, disdaining human relationships in favour of accumulating finely crafted technological artefacts
. While returning from a grocery shopping trip with his landlady in his Volvo P1800
, he stops for toilet purposes, and while both humans are out of the car the dogs suddenly appear, invade the car and devour all the shopping. His anger at the violation of his prized car leads him on a solitary one-man crusade to destroy the dogs, and he falls to his death from the top of Dow Crag
while attempting a difficult shot at Rowf, whom he had spotted on the scree
s below. The dogs are by now starving, snowfall having removed the sheep from the fells and cut off their main food source, and they devour Westcott's body. The discovery of the mutilated corpse allows Digby Driver to whip up media hysteria to new heights.
Alan Wood
Snitter's master. He is a gentle, kindly man, in late middle age, working as a solicitor
. He is somewhat untidy in matters of housekeeping
, which he deems unimportant, and seems to have little social life, but is devoted to Snitter. For most of the book, Snitter believes him to be dead—killed in an accident as he saved Snitter from being run over by a truck after the dog ran onto the road. Snitter reminisces fondly and wistfully about his life with his master, gradually working up to the traumatic events of the accident, wracked by guilt because he believes himself responsible for his master's death.
Annie Mossity
Alan Wood's sister, as Snitter refers to Mrs. Anne Moss—a pun on "animosity". She is a domineering woman, and it is implied that her husband ran off without the formalities of a divorce because he could not stand her any more. She is disdainful of her brother's easygoing, untidy ways and has hated Snitter since she first met him. To her falls the responsibility of looking after Snitter after Wood's road accident, which she discharges by selling him to ARSE, buying a fur coat with the proceeds, and lying to Alan to cover her misdeeds. She is interviewed by Digby Driver midway through the book, and is successful in mendaciously confirming his false assumption that her brother is dead.
, Martin Rosen
directed and adapted The Plague Dogs
into an animated feature film, which was released in 1982. In a stark contrast to the addendum in subsequent editions of the book—which describes the dogs' finding sanctuary from the hunters and being cleared of carrying the plague—the film concludes as the first edition of the book proper, with the dogs swimming out to sea, disappearing into the mist, in search of an imaginary island.
Watership Down
Watership Down is a classic heroic fantasy novel, written by English author Richard Adams, about a small group of rabbits. Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language , proverbs, poetry, and mythology...
, about two dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s who escape an animal testing
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...
facility and are subsequently pursued by both the government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
and the media. It was first published in 1977
1977 in literature
The year 1977 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Adams begins writing for BBC radio.*V. S. Naipaul declines the offer of a CBE....
, and features a few location maps drawn by Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright MBE was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the...
, a fellwalker and author.
Plot
This book tells of the escape of two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, from a government researchResearch
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
station in the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, where they had been horribly mistreated. They live on their own with help from a red fox
Red Fox
The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, as well as being the most geographically spread member of the Carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central America, and the steppes of Asia...
, or "tod," who speaks to them in a Geordie
Geordie
Geordie is a regional nickname for a person from the Tyneside region of the north east of England, or the name of the English-language dialect spoken by its inhabitants...
dialect. After the starving dogs attack some sheep on the fells, they are reported as ferocious man-eating monsters by a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
. A great dog hunt follows, which is later intensified with the fear that the dogs could be carriers of a dangerous bioweapon, such as the bubonic plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
.
Basis in reality
Adams based the book's research station, ARSE (an acronym for Animal Research, Scientific and Experimental, and British slang for buttocksButtocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
), on the remote hill farm of Lawson Park, now run as an artist residency by the contemporary art organisation Grizedale Arts
Grizedale Arts
Grizedale Arts is a contemporary arts residency and commissioning agency in the central Lake District in rural Northern England. It conducts cultural projects locally, nationally and internationally...
.
Characters
RowfA shaggy, large black mongrel, born in the laboratory where inhumane experiments were performed on him and his companion, Snitter
Snitter
Snitter is a village and civil parish in Northumberland, England. It is near the Northumberland National Park. The closest town is Rothbury.- Governance :Snitter is in the parliamentary constituency of Berwick-upon-Tweed....
. Snitter escapes with Rowf, only to find that living in the great outdoors is quite challenging. Rowf is usually a downtrodden fellow, quite old and cynical, since he has had a hard life and never met a decent human. As a result of the experimentation, he has gained an abnormal fear of water
Aquaphobia
Aquaphobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of water. Aquaphobia is a specific phobia that involves a level of fear that is beyond the patient's control or that may interfere with daily life. People suffer aquaphobia in many ways and may experience it even though they realize the water in an...
. Toward the end of his travels, his time with Snitter has him believing in something more.
Snitter
A black and white (white, chocolate, and tan in the film) fox terrier
Fox Terrier
Fox Terrier refers primarily to two different breeds of the terrier dog type: the Smooth Fox Terrier and the Wire Fox Terrier. Both of these breeds originated in the 19th century from a handful of dogs who are descended from earlier varieties of British terriers, and are related to other modern...
. Unlike his friend, Rowf, Snitter was once settled into a home. After he lost his master in a road accident with a truck, he was sold to the laboratory. The scientists in the lab have performed numerous brain surgeries on Snitter, merging his conscious and subconscious mind. This causes him to have nightmarish flashes and dreams at random times, whether he is asleep or awake. Frequently he hallucinates the sight of his master approaching, and turns round in joyful greeting, only to find there is no one there. Once he and Rowf escape the lab, Snitter is determined to find another home for himself and his friend. Snitter is the most hopeful character in the book, and the most mysterious, since he can have several strange, but beautiful ramblings of future events and of past ones. As he and Rowf are driven far out to sea, he sees something: Freedom.
- At this point, the original edition of the book (and the film) ends. In an addendum published in subsequent editions, the dogs are rescued by a small boat crewed by Ronald LockleyRonald LockleyRonald Mathias Lockley was a Welsh naturalist and author who spent much of his later life in New Zealand. He wrote over fifty books, including The Private Life of the Rabbit , which played an important role in the plot development of Richard Adams' famous book Watership Down...
and Sir Peter Scott. They are returned to land, where Snitter is reunited with his master, who it turns out was not in fact dead but merely hospitalized with a concussion and a broken leg.
The Tod
A red fox encountered by Snitter and Rowf early in the story. He speaks not in the local dialect, but in that of Upper Tyneside, having been born "far ahint th' Cross Fell". He forges an uneasy friendship with the dogs, teaching them hunting and survival skills in return for a share of the kill. The friendship is stronger with Snitter, who understands both the tod's speech and his mode of thought. Rowf, by contrast, "can't understand a word he says," distrusts his "sly, sneaking" ways, and believes that the tod is taking advantage of his strength to provide himself with easy meals in return for advice without which Rowf feels he and Snitter would be better off. For a while the trio survive reasonably comfortably, the dogs killing sheep and fowls under the tod's guidance, but eventually the dogs' indiscreet ways drive him away, which together with the onset of winter marks the start of a much tougher phase of the dogs' fight for survival. In the book, when Rowf drives him away, he is rejoined by Snitter; however, as a pack of foxhounds closes in on the trio, he tells Snitter to run, using all his myriad of tricks to distract the pack from the pair, but is ultimately cornered and killed. The character's death is not explicitly depicted, although one of the soldiers is described as holding up his body.
Digby Driver
A newspaper reporter for the fictional London Orator. He is an amoral, self-centred man, writing wildly sensationalist articles with only the sketchiest grounding in fact and using blackmail to extort background information about bio-weapon research at ARSE. The media hysteria he creates causes panic among the local populace and eventually moves the government to deploy the army to exterminate the dogs.
- In the addendum published in subsequent editions of the book, he redeems himself when he receives a letter from Snitter's hospitalized master and brings him from the hospital to the centre of the action in the nick of time to meet the boat returning the dogs to land and assert his legal claim as Snitter's owner, thus saving Snitter (and incidentally Rowf as well) from summary execution by the waiting soldiers.
Dr. Boycott
A senior researcher at ARSE who was in charge of the experimental programme which involved Rowf. He is callous and unfeeling, with no sympathy for either the animals in his experiments or his subordinate, Stephen Powell. His inept handling of the situation arising from the dogs' escape serves both to antagonise the local farmers, who are losing sheep to the dogs, and to provide grist to Digby Driver's mill despite his efforts to do the opposite.
Stephen Powell
Dr. Boycott's subordinate, somewhat nervous and fearful of his chief, and evidently possessed of sympathy for his experimental charges which he dares not express for fear of being regarded as an unsound scientist by Dr. Boycott. It appears that his original motivation for working in an area which he evidently finds uncomfortable was to help find a cure for the mysterious disease from which his daughter Stephanie is slowly dying, but he has ended up being assigned to totally unrelated research and his main motivation now is simply to maintain a stable home in an area where his daughter is happy (i.e., the Lake District). Eventually his conscience gets the better of him during a pointless sensory deprivation experiment
Pit of despair
The pit of despair was a name used by American comparative psychologist Harry Harlow for a device he designed, technically called a vertical chamber apparatus, that he used in experiments on rhesus macaque monkeys at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1970s. The aim of the research was to...
on a monkey. He steals the monkey and takes it home, quits his job, and plans to get local employment as "a teacher or something." Early in the story he is given a lift by Digby Driver and, not realizing that he is a reporter, chats freely about his work in response to Driver's questioning. The repercussions of this inadvertent leak are another factor in his decision to quit his job.
Dr. Goodner
A researcher at ARSE carrying out secret bio-weapon research for the Ministry of Defence. He is German by birth and was a "researcher" in Buchenwald during the Second World War, but has managed to conceal this information. Digby Driver finds out about Goodner's past through contacts at the Orator and uses the information to blackmail him into revealing details of his research, specifically that he was researching the bubonic plague, which Driver uses as the foundation of his sensationalist scaremongering.
Harry Tyson
The odd-job man at ARSE, in charge of feeding and cleaning the animals and general caretaking duties. It is his carelessness in neglecting to close Rowf's cage properly that allows the dogs to escape, but he successfully conceals his mistake by sabotaging the catch of the cage before anyone notices the missing animals.
Geoffrey Westcott
A local bank clerk who is something of a recluse, disdaining human relationships in favour of accumulating finely crafted technological artefacts
Cultural artifact
A cultural artifact is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology, and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users...
. While returning from a grocery shopping trip with his landlady in his Volvo P1800
Volvo P1800
-History:The project was started in 1957 because Volvo wanted a sports car, despite the fact that their previous attempt, the P1900, had been a disaster, with only 68 cars sold. The man behind the project was an engineering consultant to Volvo, Helmer Petterson, who in the 1940s was responsible for...
, he stops for toilet purposes, and while both humans are out of the car the dogs suddenly appear, invade the car and devour all the shopping. His anger at the violation of his prized car leads him on a solitary one-man crusade to destroy the dogs, and he falls to his death from the top of Dow Crag
Dow Crag
Dow Crag is a fell in the English Lake District near Coniston, Cumbria. The eastern face is one of the many rock faces in the Lake District used for rock climbing....
while attempting a difficult shot at Rowf, whom he had spotted on the scree
Scree
Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles...
s below. The dogs are by now starving, snowfall having removed the sheep from the fells and cut off their main food source, and they devour Westcott's body. The discovery of the mutilated corpse allows Digby Driver to whip up media hysteria to new heights.
Alan Wood
Snitter's master. He is a gentle, kindly man, in late middle age, working as a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
. He is somewhat untidy in matters of housekeeping
Housekeeping
Housekeeping is the act of cleaning the rooms and furnishings of a home. It is one of the many chores included in the term housework. Housecleaning includes activities such as disposing of rubbish, cleaning dirty surfaces, dusting and vacuuming. It may also involve some outdoor chores, such as...
, which he deems unimportant, and seems to have little social life, but is devoted to Snitter. For most of the book, Snitter believes him to be dead—killed in an accident as he saved Snitter from being run over by a truck after the dog ran onto the road. Snitter reminisces fondly and wistfully about his life with his master, gradually working up to the traumatic events of the accident, wracked by guilt because he believes himself responsible for his master's death.
- In the addendum published in subsequent editions, it is revealed that Wood survived the accident and is recovering slowly in a hospitalHospitalA hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
. He had been told by his sister that Snitter has run off and cannot be found; he is horrified when he eventually sees a report in the Orator and realises the truth. He writes to Digby Driver, who (in a fit of character reversal) is overcome with guilt for his actions, and takes him from the hospital to the scene of the action just in time to ensure a happy ending, asserting his legal claim as Snitter's owner and taking in Rowf as well.
Annie Mossity
Alan Wood's sister, as Snitter refers to Mrs. Anne Moss—a pun on "animosity". She is a domineering woman, and it is implied that her husband ran off without the formalities of a divorce because he could not stand her any more. She is disdainful of her brother's easygoing, untidy ways and has hated Snitter since she first met him. To her falls the responsibility of looking after Snitter after Wood's road accident, which she discharges by selling him to ARSE, buying a fur coat with the proceeds, and lying to Alan to cover her misdeeds. She is interviewed by Digby Driver midway through the book, and is successful in mendaciously confirming his false assumption that her brother is dead.
Adaptations
Like its predecessor Watership DownWatership Down
Watership Down is a classic heroic fantasy novel, written by English author Richard Adams, about a small group of rabbits. Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language , proverbs, poetry, and mythology...
, Martin Rosen
Martin Rosen (director)
Martin Rosen is an American film and theater director, producer and writer. Rosen is known for the animated adaptation of Richard Adams's Watership Down.He is founder and owner of film/theater company Nepenthe.-Career:...
directed and adapted The Plague Dogs
The Plague Dogs (film)
The Plague Dogs is a 1982 animated film based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Richard Adams. The film was written-for-screen, directed and produced by Martin Rosen, who also directed Watership Down, the film version of another novel by Adams, produced by Nepenthe Productions and released by...
into an animated feature film, which was released in 1982. In a stark contrast to the addendum in subsequent editions of the book—which describes the dogs' finding sanctuary from the hunters and being cleared of carrying the plague—the film concludes as the first edition of the book proper, with the dogs swimming out to sea, disappearing into the mist, in search of an imaginary island.