THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



279 



groups in attacking sheep, and often 

 travel for miles. One sheep-killing dog 

 can soon lead astray his associates of a 

 whole neighborhood. Usually such a dog 

 has no countenance, and the phrase "he 

 looked like a sheep-killing dog," so often 

 used by countrymen to describe some fel- 

 low's lack of ability to look another in 

 the eye, is an expressive one to those who 

 have seen such an animal. 



Many suggestions have been advanced 

 for overcoming the attacks of dogs upon 

 flocks. One of these is that the sheep 

 be driven to a sheepfold every night — a 

 burdensome measure. 



Another suggestion is that dog-tight 

 fences be built. Such fences call for 

 barbed wire at the bottom and the top, 

 and any one who has seen horses cut to 

 pieces in such a fence wonders whether 

 there are not better means. 



Some farmers have improved condi- 

 tions by teaching their young dogs to re- 

 spect the sheep and the sheep to defend 

 themselves. It is striking how much re- 

 spect for the prowess of a ram can be put 

 into a puppy by two or three vigorous 

 buttings from his ramship ; but not less 

 surprising how much courage an old ram 

 can muster who has taught a puppy or 

 two their place. 



The dogs that are homeless and the 

 ones that are permitted out of bounds 

 are a menace not only to the sheep indus- 

 try, but to the health of man and beast as 

 well. So great is this menace that the 

 United States Department of Agriculture 

 says there is a growing conviction that 

 while his innate qualities and the fund of 

 affectionate sentiment which attaches to 

 him warrant the preservation of the dog 

 with a responsible owner, who will keep 

 him clean and free from vermin of all 

 sorts, holding him within reasonable 

 bounds and restraint and assuming re- 

 sponsibility for his acts, on the other 

 hand, the ownerless dog, the dog that 

 carries vermin and disease, the dog that 

 kills sheep or destroys property of any 

 sort — the trespassing dog — must be elim- 

 inated. 



DISEASES SPREAD BY DOGS 



Dogs spread many diseases — most ter- 

 rible of these being rabies. In a recent 



year in human beings in the United 

 States died of hydrophobia. Tens of 

 thousands of dogs suffering from this 

 disease are killed, and yet there is no ex- 

 cuse for its existence. Years ago the dis- 

 ease became so general in England as to 

 amount to a national menace. A strin- 

 gent muzzling law was enacted, its terms 

 enforced, and a quarantine on imported 

 dogs established, with the result that the 

 disease has entirely disappeared from the 

 country, the only case that has occurred 

 since 1902 being that of an imported dog 

 held in a six months' quarantine. 



Australia and New Zealand have a sim- 

 ilar quarantine, and the disease has never 

 reached those lands. The man who as- 

 serts that it is the populace and not the 

 dog that goes mad when there is a rabies 

 scare should recall that the same condi- 

 tions prevailed in England until the en- 

 actment of the muzzling and quarantine 

 law. 



Other diseases which the wandering 

 dog is known to spread are hyatid and 

 gid, both worm complaints, the first af- 

 fecting the liver, kidneys, brain, and lungs, 

 and the other attacking the brain and 

 spinal cord of farm animals ; tapeworm, 

 which attacks man and beast alike, round- 

 worm, etc. 



A MODEL LAW FOR PROTECTION OE AND 

 AGAINST DOGS 



The United States Department of Ag- 

 riculture has collected all of the clauses 

 in all of the State laws that have proved 

 their merit under the test of time and 

 has formulated them into a model dog 

 law, which it recommends to the consid- 

 eration of all true friends of the dog — 

 friends who believe in perpetuating the 

 good that is in dogs and in eradicating 

 the evil. 



This model law embodies the idea that 

 the tax assessor should list the dogs ; that 

 unspayed females should be subject to a 

 high tax ; that all dogs should be required 

 to wear collars and tags bearing the 

 names of their owners ; that all dogs, un- 

 less under leash or reasonable control of 

 their owners, should be confined from 

 sunset to sunrise ; that sheep-killing dogs 

 may be killed by any one, without lia- 

 bility to owner ; that any dog running at 



