PROTECTING SHEEP PROM DOGS AND WOLVES 37 1 



alike; second, because the fund collected does not in all 

 instances cover the loss ; and third, because in some coun- 

 ties practically no sheep are reared. 



Because of these and other objections, laws that have 

 been passed to protect sheep from dogs have in several 

 instances been repealed. The cities have laws or by-laws 

 relating to dogs, hence they are beyond the jurisdiction 

 of the counties, and so cannot be reached by enactments 

 in these, and yet many of the losses incurred result from 

 the attacks of city dogs. 



Whether legislation will yet be enacted that will 

 prove more effective remains to be seen. As long as the 

 sentiment that exalts the sport of hunting to a higher 

 plane than sheep husbandry remains, remedial legislation 

 to protect sheep will not be easily obtained. That the 

 industry ought to be thus protected, however, cannot for 

 one moment be questioned. The agitation for it, there- 

 fore, should never cease until it is obtained. 



Protective measures on the farm — In the absence of 

 adequate protection from the legislature, the sheep own- 

 er can adopt protective measures that will go far to in- 

 sure safety for his sheep. Even when legislation has been 

 enacted it may be fitly supplemented by the adoption of 

 such measures. These include protection furnished by 

 bells, by goats, by corrals, by fences, by firearms and 

 by poison. 



It has been claimed that putting bells in large num- 

 bers on sheep will afford protection against dogs and also 

 against wolves. That protection to some extent has thus 

 been afforded is probably true, but whether such protec- 

 tion would in all instances prove adequate is at least an 

 open question. The effectiveness would doubtless be in- 

 fluenced, first by the size of the flock, and, second, by the 

 extent to which it is equipped with bells. It has been the 

 practice of some flockmasters to furnish from 25 to 50 

 per cent of the flock with bells. 



In some instances the presence of "billy" goats in the 



