Destruction by Man 77 



for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals de- 

 stroys over fifty thousand homeless cats a year, 

 and it is a disgrace to that wonderful city 

 that the conditions which make such destruction 

 necessary, are permitted to exist. In a later 

 chapter will be given some suggestions look- 

 ing to the possible solution of this very serious 

 problem. 



Badly trained dogs also, at certain times and 

 places, are destructive to birds. This is some- 

 times true of dogs belonging to people living on 

 islands or on the coast, and allowed to range over 

 the breeding grounds of sea-birds. When not 

 under proper -control such dogs are apt to get the 

 habit of chasing the birds and of driving them 

 off their nests and sometimes they will eat the 

 eggs or young. Dr. Charles H. Townsend tells 

 me that the Esquimau dogs of Labrador, which 

 in summer are turned loose to forage for them- 

 selves, are often destructive to bird life and 

 probably eat the eggs and young of all species 

 which they find nesting on the ground. 



Pigs, if not actually born with a taste for eggs 

 and nestlings, soon acquire one, and it is safe to 

 say that they never fail to devour such delicacies 

 when an opportunity presents itself. If given 

 free access to a colony of birds which nest on the 

 ground, pigs will gobble up the contents of every 



