562 
The Statute 57 and 58 Vict., c. 57, gives 
the Board of Agriculture power to make 
orders for muzzling dogs, keeping them under 
control, and the detention and disposal of 
stray dogs; and section 2 of the Dogs Act, 
1g06 (known by some as the Curfew Bell 
Act), says that the Diseases of Animals Act, 
1894, shall have effect as if amongst the 
purposes for which the Board of Agriculture 
may make orders there were included the 
following purposes :— 
(a) For prescribing and regulating the 
wearing by dogs while in a highway or in 
a place of public resort of a collar with 
the name and address of the owner in- 
scribed on the colar or on a plate or 
badge attached thereto : 
(b) With a view to the prevention of 
worrying of cattle for preventing dogs 
or any class of dogs from straying during 
all or any of the hours between sunset and 
sunrise. 
Orders under this section may provide 
that any dog in respect of which an 
offence is being committed against the 
orders may be seized and treated as a 
stray dog. 
The Dogs Act, 1g06, has also some im- 
po tant sections dealing with seizure of stray 
dogs, and enacts that where a police officer 
has reason to believe that any dog found 
in a highway or place of public resort is a stray 
dog, he may seize and retain it until the 
owner has claimed it and paid all expenses 
incurred by reason of its detention. If the 
dog so seized wears a coilar on which is the 
address of any person, or if the owner of the 
dog is known, then the chief officer of police 
or some person authorised by him in that 
behalf shall serve on either such person a 
notice in writing stating that the dog has 
been seized, and will be sold or destroyed 
if not claimed within seven clear days of 
the service of the notice. 
Failing the owner putting in an appear- 
ance and paying all expenses of detention 
within the seven clear days, then the chief 
officer of police or any person authorised by 
him may cause the dog to be sold, or destroyed 
THE NEW BOOK 
(UE SE ela. AOL) 
in a manner to cause as little pain as possible. 
The dog must be properly fed and maintained 
by the police, or other person having charge 
of him, during his detention, and no dog so 
seized shall be given or sold for the purpose 
of vivisection. The police must keep a 
proper register of all dogs seized, and every 
such register shall be open to inspection at 
all reasonable times by any member of the 
public on payment of a fee of one sh lling, 
and the police may transfer such dog to any 
establishment for the reception of stray 
dogs, but only if there is a proper register 
kept at such establishment open to inspec- 
tion by the public on payment of a fee not 
exceeding one shilling. 
Another section enacts that any person 
who takes possession of a stray dog shall 
forthwith either return the dog to its owner 
or give notice in writing to the chief officer of 
police of the district where the dog was 
found, containing a description of the dog 
and stating the place where the dog was 
found, and the place where he is being 
detained, and any person failing to comply 
with the provisions of this section shall be 
lable on conviction under the Summary 
Jurisdiction Acts to a fine not exceeding 
forty shillings. 
It is possible that this Act will serve a 
useful purpose in identifying stray dogs, 
and underlying many of its sections there 
seems to be a somewhat unusual wish to 
prevent a too great display on the part of 
the police of that objectionable red tape 
which one has become accustomed to expect 
Acts of Parliament to assist rather than 
discourage. 
It is to be doubted very much, however, 
whether it will benefit the cause for which 
in reality it was brought into being, viz. 
the prevention of sheep-worrying. The sheep- 
worrying dog as a rule is an exceedingly 
clever, wily animal, and is not at all likely 
to be caught straying by the ordinary 
country policeman. It is further a pretty 
generally accepted fact that by far the 
greater part of sheep-worrying is done by 
the farmers’ dogs themselves, and they in 
most cases would keep well clear of all 
places where policemen are likely to be, for 
