152 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



Prevention. 



1. Reduce the number of dogs in each State to the lowest 

 possible minimum, by means of a high and rigidly exacted dog- 

 tax. 



2. A quarterly revision of all the dogs owned in a State should 

 be made by the police authorities, and all dogs, of whatever age, 

 sex, or character, found without a license number and tag upon 

 their collar for the time in question, and not an old tag, should be 

 peremptorily killed at a time fixed by law, unless a license is at once 

 procured. 



3. All dogs found running loose without an appropriate collar 

 and tag should be peremptorily killed. 



(a.) The police should have power to kill, and not authorized 

 " dog-killers," who, as experience has taught us, are more apt to be 

 " dog-stealers " than faithful public servants. 



4. In every city, town, or village, there should be, not a pound, 

 but an animal quarantine, where animals in which contagious or 

 infectious diseases were suspected could be quarantined, for a time 

 fixed by law, and remain under the daily supervision of a com- 

 petently qualified State veterinary official, no empiric. 



To this quarantine should be sent every dog in which an ab- 

 normal inclination to bite has been observed, and especially and 

 peremptorily every dog which had bitten a human being without 

 justifiable cause. Here it should be caged and confined for a period 

 of not less than five weeks, and at the expense of the owner. If 

 the owner of such a dog will not pay the expense, then at the ex- 

 pense of the city, town, or village, in which said dog is quarantined ; 

 the dog or dogs in question, if found healthy at the expiration of 

 such a quarantine, to be sold at public auction on account of said 

 town, city, or village, or killed. 



(b.) Too much stress can not be placed upon the value of this 

 last clause to the community. No greater mistake can be made 

 than at once killing a suspected animal which has bitten a person. 

 The plan proposed, by ascertaining the real condition of the dog, 

 will do more than any one thing to free the mind of a person bit- 

 ten by a dog from the danger of hysteric rabies, and also free 

 the minds of the community from an unnecessary and protracted 

 anxiety. 



5. These regulations should apply to all dog-owners, whether 

 breeders or not, and no exception to them should be made, on prom- 

 ises of owners to see to them at home. 



