LEGISLATION CONCERNING MAMMALS l8l 



demies and the confinement of vicious dogs at other times. (5) Laws 

 prohibiting owners from permitting their stock to run at large on high- 

 ways or public lands, and concerning responsibility for damage done 

 by stock to crops or other property. (6) Laws in some of western 

 states providing for the destruction of wild horses, which have become 

 a nuisance in some localities. 23 



Dog license laws are in force in many states and municipalities for 

 the purpose of fixing ownership of dogs valued by their owners, in 

 order that strays and homeless dogs may be disposed of, and many 

 thousands of worthless strays are destroyed each year by the authori- 

 ties. The total amount of fees collected from dog licenses in the United 

 States is considerable. As dogs sometimes acquire the habit of killing 

 sheep and poultry and worrying other stock, the loss from this cause 

 being large in some localities, many states now have laws explicitly 

 fixing responsibility for damage to livestock by dogs and defining the 

 right of the owner of stock to destroy dogs found at large on his 

 premises. 24 Because of their destructiveness to poultry and wild birds, 

 cat laws have been adopted in some jurisdictions and proposed in 

 others. 25 There is no good reason why the provisions of the dog laws, 

 with some possible modifications, should not be applied also to cats, 

 hundreds of thousands of which, homeless and ownerless, are run- 

 ning at large in this country. It must be remembered, however, as 

 Forbush has pointed out, that even cats and dogs have some legal 

 rights, and especially should those who contemplate setting out poison 

 for these domesticated animals remember that there are in many jur- 

 isdictions stringent laws concerning the use of poisons. 



Because rats greatly increase the fire hazard, as well as because of 

 their general destructiveness and their activity as disease carriers, 

 it has been suggested that the building laws of cities should require 

 the rat-proofing of buildings. 26 



23 Palmer, The danger of introducing noxious animals and birds, Yearbook U. S. 

 Dept. Agric. for 1898, p. 88. 



24 Coll, Sheep-killing dogs, Farmers' Bull., No. 1268, 1922; revision, by Simmons, 

 Farmers' Bull., No. 1268, 1924. 



25 Calif 'ornia Fish and Game, i, 42, 1914. Bird Lore, xix, 178, 1917; xxi, 330, 1919. 

 Wilson Bull., No. 105, p. 118, 1918. Henderson, The practical Talue of birds, pp. 32 

 33, 77-78, 100-103, in. Forbush, The domestic cat, Massachusetts State Board of 

 Agric., Econ. Biol, Bull. No. 2, pp. 97-108, 1916. 



26 Silver, Farmers' Bull., No. 1533, p. 20, 1927. 



