Eil Lake assesses the New York Times column by Nicohlas Kristof that I discussed in “The Times strikes again.” Lake’s Free Press column runs under the headline “Nick Kristof’s ‘Dog Torture’ Claim About Israel Doesn’t Pass Muster.”
In my own comments on Kristof’s column, I expresssed the desire to see a sidebar to Kristof’s column in which some enterprising reporter or columnist would explore the training of the alleged Israeli rape dogs. I thought that would make for a whopper of a story. As one of Shakespeare’s character puts it punnningly in As You Like It, thereby hangs a tale.
My man Eli takes up the challenge (links omitted):
The story of trained rape dogs does not hold up. Let’s start with what is known about the biology of male dogs. Their penises are small and thin. They become erect only when they smell the pheromones of a female dog in heat. Brandon McMillan, the three-time Emmy-winning host of CBS’s Lucky Dog, who has spent 25 years training animals, told me he had never heard of a dog who was trained to rape a human being and doubted this was possible.
“When a female is in heat, the pheromones released carry it to the male canine,” McMillan said. “That’s how they reproduce and the miracle happens. I don’t see how you would train a dog to do that. The dog has to get turned on, for lack of a better word.”
Kristof claimed on X on Tuesday that “at least three different medical journal articles discuss rectal injuries in humans from anal penetration by dogs.” He did not provide links to those studies. There is one historical claim of a dog trained to rape prisoners. A German shepherd named Volodia was allegedly trained to rape female prisoners during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile at the Venda Sexy torture facility. This was reported by a Chilean truth-and-reconciliation commission based on the testimony of victims. These reports, however, do not account for how Volodia became erect in the absence of female dogs in heat.
If Eli gives us TMI (too much information), Kristof gives to TMD (too much disinformation). He has much more in his Free Press column here (behind the Free Press paywall).
Anonymous sources, pro-Hamas activists, and shoddy biology all fed into a dubious ‘New York Times’ report. https://t.co/VULoRgfj3c
— The Free Press (@TheFP) May 12, 2026
