137 



While the measure has met with a considerable amount of more 

 or >ess pertinent criticism it cannot be said to have been actually 

 opposed and it is doubtful whether a single dog, if at all worth 

 while, has been left behind on that account. 



The actual number of dogs imported or arriving here with 

 tourists or returning residents fell during 1913 to 75 head as 

 compared with 106 during 1912 and 132 in 1911. but this reduction 

 is due principally to an official order restricting the number of 

 pets and mascots which usually arrived here with every regi- 

 ment, company or troop that was to be stationed here. During 

 the past year only officers' dogs have been allowed to accompany 

 the various contingents of soldiers arriving here, thereby elimi- 

 nating a great number of more or less worthless dogs which 

 otherwise would have crowded the quarantine station for four 

 months each. Another cause for the reduction is due in part to 

 the strict six months' quarantine maintained in Australia and New 

 Zealand which in conjunction with the local quarantine prevents 

 theatrical companies, such as dog and monkey shows, from bring- 

 ing performing animals to any of these countries or wdiich at 

 least makes it so expensive and annoying to the managers that 

 they have practically abandoned the Hawaii, New Zealand, Aus- 

 tralian circuit which formerly concluded such companies' tour of 

 the world. In 1911 for instance more than 33 per cent, of the 

 dogs arriving here consisted of soldiers' pets and performing 

 dogs. That the dog quarantine regulation has proved effective in 

 keeping the disease out until this time is very gratifying, espe- 

 cially when considering that the epidemic prevailing in the Pacific 

 Coast States, so far from being suppressed, is constantly on the 

 increase, and, while a number of attempts have been made to 

 willfully circumvent the regulation and land dogs here regardless 

 of the quarantine requirements, it is believed that no such at- 

 tempt has so far been successful, and it is sincerely to be hoped 

 that common sense will prevail among both tourists and resident 

 dog owners and make them realize the awful responsibility they 

 assume in attempting or conniving at the introduction of a dog 

 without quarantine. The last case reported to the Board, from 

 Hayward, California, where one rabid dog bit six persons, a 

 couple of horses and more tlmn twenty other dogs in less than an 

 hour, before it was cornered and shot, furnishes a good illustra- 

 tion of what might happen in this dog-infested district, should the 

 disease gain an entrance here. In the first place it would be 

 necessary to establish a Pasteur institute here for the preparation 

 of the vaccine and the treatment of bitten persons, a matter of 

 several thousand dollars, and the employment of at least one ex- 

 pert scientist and assistant. California now has seven such official 

 institutions and a number of private ones, in which hundreds of 

 people are being treated annually. But before such laboratory 

 and clinic could be established here it would be necessary to send 

 all bitten persons to San Francisco, in many cases at public ex- 



