Species: dohar
DOHARs (DOg-Human Alpha Recombinants) are a hybrid species invented by the artist Drafthorse. They inhabit an imaginary future in which an international agreement and governing body, the København Infertile Sex System (KISS), governs the production and status of genetically engineered human-nonhuman hybrids known as "recombinants" ("recons"), developed as intersterile sexual superstimuli and partners for humans with the aim of controlling human population numbers.
DOHARs were produced by KISS bioengineers to gratify sexual inclinations leaning more towards the zooerastic than the human norm. Unlike their citizen-grade congeners, the DOHBRs (q.v.), DOHARS have an almost completely doglike external appearance, a largely canine genome, and a degree of intelligence that overlaps with those of humans but averages somewhat less than the human mean. Males have doglike external genitalia; female genitalia are like those of humans. Lifespan averages 35 years. Although DOHARs have no difficulty learning and understanding a human language, they are neurologically and anatomically incapable of enunciating words, and rely accordingly on various forms of body and sign language and whining intonation patterns for communicating with their partners and companions.
Having less than a 50% human genome, DOHARs are non-citizen chattels with limited civil rights. All are legally wards of the KISS, but are generally contracted out to fostering individuals for indefinite periods and treated as privately owned companions and sexpets. A KISS representative visits all fostered DOHARs periodically to ensure that they are receiving proper treatment from their "owners."
Like those of DOHBRs, the canine genes of DOHARs are derived chiefly from collies and other dog breeds used in herding and guarding sheep. This ancestry manifests itself in an attraction to and an urge to dominate ungulate-derived recombinants, especially SHUGRs (Sheep-Human-Goat Recombinants, q.v.). Female SHUGRs find it comforting and rewarding to be "herded," and most KISS sexothèques keep a house DOHAR on hand to enrich the emotional and sexual lives of the does working there.