68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. IJatl., 



upon this question. One thing we need to do and that is to 

 rouse pubHc sentiment against the dogs and in favor of the 

 keeping of sheep, and that is one thing that our Connecticut 

 Sheep Breeders' Association is trying to do. That is one thing 

 that every sheep breeder in Connecticut should stand for. We 

 have pretty good dog laws. You look them over, and you will 

 acknowledge, if you are fair and broad-minded, that it would 

 be very hard to suggest any improvement in them. The trou- 

 ble is that the dog laws which we have today are not en- 

 forced. Why are they not enforced? It is just because of 

 the utter indifference of the agriculturists themselves. You 

 cannot expect that those who have no interest in these matters 

 in the State are going to enforce the dog laws. We sheep 

 breeders cannot expect the dairymen to enforce them. The 

 fruit growers are not going to enforce the dog laws. It is 

 right up to us ourselves to see that they are enforced, and the 

 only way to accomplish it is to arouse public sentiment upon 

 this question and to go at it in the right way. I reside in the 

 town of West Hartford. It is one of those towns that is per- 

 haps equally divided between an urban and a suburban popu- 

 lation. We have some sheep in that town. I was talking with 

 our town clerk and asking about the dog tax. He said that up 

 to three years ago the dog tax amounted to about eighty or a 

 hundred dollars per annum. Our selectmen discovered that 

 there was a statute upon the book which had been there for a 

 great many years, reading something to this effect: that on 

 or before the first day of June the town clerk of each town 

 shall make a list of all the dogs which have been registered, 

 etc., and it shall thereupon become the duty of the selectmen 

 to find out if there are any dogs that have not been regis- 

 tered. Now how many towns are there in the State of Con- 

 necticut where that is applied? The statute is mandatory. It 

 says that the selectmen shall do that. That is what they did 

 in my town, and that is just what we want them to do in every 

 town. We want some good live member of our association in 



