Nigger (dog)

The word nigger was often used as a dog's name during the early part of the 20th century. A black explosive sniffer dog named Nigger served with a Royal Engineers mine clearance unit in 1944 during the Normandy Campaign. The black dog leading a sled dog team on the Terra Nova Expedition to the Antarctic (1910–1913) was also named Nigger. The term was not considered offensive in the UK until the 1950s, being found earlier in novels and other contexts and causing no remark at the time. ==Portrayal on film==

Censorship Nigger was portrayed in the 1955 British war film The Dam Busters, in which he was mentioned by name frequently. In 1999, British television network ITV broadcast a censored version of the film, with all instances of the name removed. ITV blamed regional broadcaster London Weekend Television, which in turn alleged that a junior staff member had been responsible for the unauthorised cuts. When ITV again showed a censored version in June 2001, it was criticised by Index on Censorship as "unnecessary and ridiculous" and because the edits introduced continuity errors. In 2012, historian and writer James Holland commented that controversy over the dog's name seems to have overshadowed other aspects of the raid. When he told people that he was planning to write a book on the raid, 9 out of 10 replied "What are you going to call the dog?" He found that the three characters connected with the raid that most people had heard of were Guy Gibson, Barnes Wallis, and Nigger. ==See also==