DOGS AND DOG LAWS. 451 



WHAT IT COSTS TO KEEP DOGS. 



Did the reader ever count the cost of the dogs in the country ? — the cost of 

 their keeping, the vahie of the sheep and other animals killed and worried, and 

 the quarrels and lawsuits occasioned by them 1 Is it possible to estimate the 

 cost of hydrophobia in a single human subject ? To the extent of their excep- 

 tional usefulness dogs should be credited ; but what figures shall we place in 

 the long account agaiast them ? 



It must be settled first how many there are. Did not our municipal author- 

 ities in cities, and the magistri domi of the country, sensible disciples of Mal- 

 thus as they are, restrain production, there would be littcr-nWy inundations of 

 canines overwhelming the land every quarter, and they would represent every 

 imaginable grade of canine miscegenation — gaunt, lank-faced, and straight-tailed, 

 like their northern progenitors, the wolf; voracious, mean-spirited, and unsightly 

 as the jackals from which some species have descended ; and every imaginable 

 shade of intermixture between the two types, and between the myriad sub- 

 species which were produced first by the modifications of climate and condi- 

 tion, and then permanently fixed by breeding. 



It is an inexorable necessity, then, that this prolific and promiscuous race 

 should be curtailed of its excessive multiplications. How many do we tolerate ? 

 Enumerations by assessors or other ofiicials can show but a portion. Were 

 there no total omissions or pai'tial neglects in towns — in towns here and there — 

 the census would only bring to light a portion of this wandering race. People 

 will evade this premonition of a tax by judicious silence, by equivocations, and 

 not a few of the owners of the lower class of curs (or the lower class owners of 

 curs) by downright lying. Let these statistics be examined : 



In Ohio the official enumeration of 1S62 foots up 174,405 animals; that of 

 1863, 183,167 ; intelligent members of the recent wool convention estimated the 

 real numbers at 500,000. This would be one to every family, or one to every 

 five inhabitants ; the official census makes one to every thirteen. It is plain 

 that Ohio exceeds the estimate, often made by men capable of judging correctly, 

 of at least one dog to every ten of the human population throughout the country. 

 Massachusetts had about 100,000 dogs in 1859 ; fully one to every twelve of 

 the human population — thirteen to every square mile — a very large proportion 

 for a State made up of cities and villages, full of practical and sensible people, 

 most of them having no more use for a dog than for a real wolf or a veritable 

 jackal. 



Little Rhode Island has had 6,845 dogs upon its tax list — a fact which 

 furnishes a very safe guarantee of a proportion fully as large as that of ]\Iassa- 

 chusetts. 



In western and frontier States the proportion is greatly in excess of that of 

 Ohio. In so old and thickly settled a State as New York it is also large. A 

 census of dogs in Cayuga county exhibits among a human population of 55,000 

 no less than 13,000 dogs, almost one to four, fully equal to the half million 

 estimate of Ohio, which, as a central State of medium population, may fairly be 

 taken as a basis for a national estimate. Now, Ohio has not exceeding one-tenth 

 of the population of thg States actually under federal authority. Upon the 

 highest estimate for that State, the dogs of the loyal States would therefore 

 number five millions. But to make a moderate estimate, which cannot be gain- 

 said, and which is probably less than the actual number, let us fix it at three 

 millions. What is the boaid of these three millions of dogs worth ? In Wash- 

 ington, sportsmen's dogs, which are of medium size, and fairly representative 

 of the medium feeding capacity, are boarded at two dollars per week. In other 

 places the price is less. Throughout the country, taking the range of city and 

 country, seaboard and frontier, the price of boarding varies fi-om fifty cents to 

 two dollars. If we acknowledge the possibility of profit in such boarding, and 



