140 The Carnivora. 
and high above the general din could be heard the stentorian 
voice of the half-bred Newfoundland. A grateful country 
should feel indebted to me for having got out of that as 
soon as possible and saved it the expense of supporting 
one more incurable lunatic. 
The burden of combating these intolerable nuisances should 
not be borne by private individuals. They ought to be ordi- 
nary matters of police, to be inquired into on a well-founded 
complaint; and a prosecution should be undertaken, if neces- 
sary, by a public officer, who would easily obtain evidence 
where a private individual is unable to secure it for any 
action he may desire to take. A house-to-house visit of 
inquiry in the neighbourhood by such officer, would place 
him in possession of overwhelming confirmation of any 
genuine complaint, and he could go to a magistrate for 
an order cautioning the offender to abate it forthwith, on 
pain of prosecution and fine. 
There is no need to urge on the humane and conscientious 
owner his duty to his dog as well as to his neighbour, for 
one includes the other. He will see that to keep a dog 
chained up during the greater part of its life, is to inflict 
upon it perpetual misery. If all those unfortunate dogs that 
are on the chain from day to day and month to month 
could express their feelings, I am sure they would prefer 
almost any other form of cruelty, so long as they could enjoy 
their liberty, to the wretched life of imactivity they are 
forced to lead, staring all day long at four blank walls and a 
stable broom. What criminal would not choose hard labour 
in the open air rather than solitary confinement in a prison 
cell? We must consider the high nervous organisation we 
are dealing with. This becomes more or less deranged, the 
dog is rendered uncertain in temper and stupid from want 
of association with man, and he suffers agonies of mind in 
waiting, watching, hoping for the freedom that never comes. 
We can shut up a cow in a London dairy from the day on 
which she gives her first pail of milk to that on which her 
