DOGS AND DOG LAWS. 455 



and it becomes a nuisance, a constant trespass npon the rights of citizens to be 

 abated, and if the necessity of the case demands it, exterminated. 



The dog may, then, either be taxed as simple property, or his keeping be li- 

 censed as a matter to be regulated «iud restrained by law. Nor does a State 

 constitution, like that of Ohio, wliich requires the levying of taxes according to 

 value of property, prevent such licensing and restraint upon an animal which isj 

 half domestic and half predatory. 



The silly objections to the principle of taxing dogs shows the poverty of 

 arguments against it. One man assumes it to be taxing one person to pay the 

 losses of another, for which he is in nowise responsible. But a man who owns 

 a dog, which may go unrestrained upon the premises of others, is responsible 

 for damages he may occasion; and when, from the multiplied numbers of tho 

 race, and its habit of nocturnal wandering, it becomes an unmitigated nuisance, 

 almost impossible of detection in its depredations, the community has a natural 

 and legal right to impose whatever restrictions may, in the judgment of the law- 

 makers, be necessary to abate the nuisance, although such restraints may reach 

 good and bad alike, and affect the poodle that cannot harm a kitten, as well as 

 the wolf-hound that lurks in the path of the traveller. But one person is not 

 taxed specifically to pay the losses of another. The man Avho owns a dog 

 should be taxed just as the owner of a sheep or lamb is taxed. Again, the dog- 

 may be taxed as a police regulation and restraint upon production. And then 

 it is not only poetical, but exact, equal justice, that the money that comes from 

 taxes of dogs should be used in part to pay the damage occasioned by dogs. 



It is common for whiners over the dog tax to ask why the community 

 should not be taxed to pay for the ravages of the weevil, the fly, the aphis, 

 mice, &c. These absurd suggestions are acknowledgments of the rightful 

 outlawry of dogs. If these pests should be taken up by man, petted, and 

 propagated to prey upon the community, not only would the propagators, 

 individually and as a class, be liable for damages, but they would deserve 

 and possibly be assigned a situation in the penitentiary. It is common to 

 hear laudations of the local laws Mdiich require cattle and other farm .stock to 

 be restricted to the premises of their owners, and, from the same lips, condem- 

 nation of the law which requires the same thing of an active animal of carniv- 

 orous habits and bloodthirsty temperament, which does its mischief in secrecy 

 and in darkness, removes the marks of blood with cunning care, and reaches 

 home by a circuitous route to greet the family at dawn of day with a look of 

 innocency and a wag of the tail, unconscious even of the existence of wrong- 

 doing. 



The sportsman goes into the country for a month's enjoyment. He sallies 

 forth with his dog and gun, and everything that ministers to his amusement or 

 his comfort is made to contribute to the wants of the government through the 

 revenue tax. He puflFs a cigar for the public good, tips a flask of whiskey to 

 strengthen the government, and burns gunpowder in aid of the rebellion's sup- 

 pression ; then he takes a sail in a taxed yacht propelled by taxed sails, fishes 

 with a taxed line, solaces himself in the shade in a taxed tent upon the shore, 

 and eats a chowder in which the very salt is taxed ; and when, on a summer 

 evening, he seeks amusement in a countiy circus or menagerie, the trick-mules 

 and learned monkeys are taught to withdraw from the general circulation a 

 substantial tribute to the nation. And yet the dog, the constant companion in 

 all this round of pleasurable and taxable enjoyment, is exempt. No tax has 

 more of the elements of justice and wise expediency than the dog tax. 



WHY THEY ARE NOT TAXED. 



The right of taxation is thus placed beyond a reasonable question. Why 

 are they not in all States fully and effectively taxed ? The reason is humib 



