166 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Tlie law en'actod by the last ]('<;is]ature, providing for payniont 

 from the dog tax fuiui tor animals (linl die of or have to be killed 

 on acconnt of rabies is gradually becoming known throughout the 

 ^tate, and many claims are being made upon the counties for com- 

 pensation under this law. 'i'lie elTcct of this is to bring to the atten- 

 tion of the locnl mil liorilies the importance of repressing (his dis- 

 ease, and this will no doubt, in time, ha\-e the beneficial effect of 

 building up public sentiment in favor of measures directed against 

 rabies. 



x\. great deal of good could be dume by reducing tihe size of the 

 canine poi*ulation of the State. There are altogether too many 

 homeless and worthless dogs in Pennsylvania. These wandering, 

 sull'eriiig animals are not only fre(piently exposed to rabies and do 

 a great deal to carry it from place to jdace but they work harm in 

 another way, by damaging the she<^p industry. There were in Penn- 

 sylvania in 190], l,(Jt)2,l()7 sheep; in 1!)0(), there were 957,483 sheep, 

 a losisi of 40. .J i)er cent. This loss appears to continue and in the 

 face of the (highest prices for wool and niutfon that have prevailed) 

 for many years. There can he no doubt that a large amount of this 

 decrease in sheep is due to the difficulties sheep owmers experience 

 Irom dogs. There ai'e parts of Pennsylvania that are admirably 

 adapted to sheep growing and that are not well adapted to other 

 kinds of agriculture, but the sheep grower can hardly afford to risk 

 the injuries to his flocks that are constantly occurring as a result of 

 these visitations of sheep killing and sheep chasing dogs. 



Hog Cholera. — Losses from hog cholera during the year are es- 

 timated at about |110,tlt)t). These losses have bee« traced in most 

 cases to the introduction ot hogs from outside ot the State. It may 

 be that these hogs were healthy when they were shipped, but after 

 passing through stock yards and stock cars they developed cholera 

 and propagated the disease. It is a matter of common knowledge 

 that it is almost fatal to swine to pass them through any one of the 

 larger stock yards, and it is very risky to ship hogs in stock cars 

 unless they have been recently cleaned and disinfected. The reason 

 for this is that a very large number of hogs suft'eriiig from cholera, 

 or that have recently partly recovered from the disease are sent to 

 market, and so the channels through which they pass become in- 

 fected. It would be very useful to shippers if some arrangement 

 could be made whereby stock yards and stock cars should be fre- 

 quently cleaned and disinfected. 



During an outbreak of cholera it is important that the infected 

 swine shall be (quarantined in order to prevent their carrying the 

 disease further; that the carcasses of hogs that die of cholera shall 

 be cremated; that the pens occupied bj^ the infected animals shall be 

 disinfected at short intervals, and that the animals still sound shall 



