@Licawolf: Thanks for your insights! I did learn something from it. I'd hate to say this, but the only reason most wolves go for lesser preys is because their challenges were too great (they were significantly threatened by humans and most feline predators like tigers since thousands of years back; I assume around 8 thousand or earlier), and in order to survive those challenges they were either forced to flee or be tamed by humans who required beasts of burden. They were often used for fur or straight up tools for survival, but before that they were quite awesome.
That said, wolves were nevertheless quite friendly species (that is, friendly to each other rather than anyone outside their species) and mutuality did play a part in their domestication and survival, but it wasn't the sole reason. Also, I didn't mean to imply that the domestication process was entirely aggressive (although it
was to some extent, like it or not), but you'll change your mind when you visit Pune once and look at the stray dogs, dying for every scrap of food. They're kicked like pests, they're ignored like some disease, and every day at last one of them die under some kind of vehicle. Some even throw rocks at them for their own amusement, and they just try to run away. If they attack, they put them down (with a spear or gun, nonetheless). Whatever happened to those wolves, those once proud wolves, that claimed some part of a forest for their own?
Each time I read that poem, images of those stray dogs flood my mind. Believe it or not, but clean, beautiful puppies are all people here at Pune crave for, and
only as keepsakes or decorations, not as some mutual friendship. As for the stray dogs? About 80% of the population here want them eliminated/extinct even if they don't have any valid reason to put them all down. This is what domestication has brought upon them, and this is why it saddens me.
And I pray, if only there was a better way the dogs could co-exist with us.