10 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 25, 1889- 



DOG LICENSE LAWS. 



{.Continued from page U96.~] 



WE continue below the publication of our reports on the 

 laws relating to dogs in towns, and the methods 

 adopted to reduce the number of vagrant curs. The in- 

 formation has been secured by correspondence with the 

 mayors or presiding officers of the several places named, and 

 the reports were all made in 1888: 



Dakota. 



Fargo. — The tax on dogs in the city of Faago is SI each. 

 Unlicensed dogs are destroyed. This year there were taxes 

 collected on 324 dogs, and about thirty killed. — Seth New- 

 MAK, Mayor. 



Grand Forks.— The tax on dogs is S3 per annum, and on 

 bitches $5, Licensed dogs wear a tag issued by chief of 

 police when license is issued. Unlicensed dogs are im- 

 pounded and kept in custody twenty-four hours, and if no 

 one owns them and the tax is not paid they are shot. Last 

 year about ninety-nine clogs were destroyed. In 1888 up to 

 the present time 119 stray dogs have been destroyed.— Alex. 

 Griggs. Mayor. 



Colorado. 



Fiu-hi.v.— The license on dogs is $1.75 a head. All un- 

 licensed dogs are impounded and destroyed.— A. Rotal, 

 Mayor. 



Dawn:— The. tax ou dogs in this city is: males IS, females 

 555. Unlicensed and stray dogs are impounded and destroyed. 

 During the current year 1,380 males and eighty-eight females 

 were licensed. Dogs are duly impounded during the sum- 

 mer months. They are kept five days, advertised, nut up at 

 auction, aud those unsold chloroformed.— E. S. Chapman 

 Private Secretary. - * ' 



Kansas. 



La wraive. — A special ordinance of this city provides for 

 the imposition of a tax of $2 for each dog and $5 for each 

 bitch, and for prosecution for misdemeanor for any violation 

 of said ordinance. Dogs caught without collars and license 

 tags witniu the limits of the city are killed and buried under 

 the direction of the city marshal.— A. G, Honnold City 

 Clerk. 



Kansas City.— Tax imposed on males #1, on females $2. 

 We have no dog pound. We have issued this year 2,100 

 licenses so far (Sept. 24; since the 1st of June. The laws of 

 Kansas prevent the destruction of dogs by the city authori- 

 ties without consent of the owner. We arrest the owner or 

 harborer of an unlicensed dog, and the defendant is tried 

 before the police court, and if we can show that he is guilty 

 he is fined, aud then compelled to at once take out his license 

 or suffer the penalty of another fine.— C. S. Griffin, License 

 inspector, 



ParvoM.— The license tax is $1 per year for male dogs and 

 $3 for females. The stray dogs and unlicensed ones are im- 

 pounded, kept for 3 days, and if not redeemed in that time 

 they are killed. Last year we paid the dog catcher 50 cents 

 per dog for every dog he killed, and he killed 154.— Mai: v S 

 Outland, City Clerk. 



AIMcm,— We charge si. 75 on.dogs and #8.35 on bitches, and 

 when tax is not paid I simply take the dog, shoot him aud 

 plant him. They pay me 50 cents.— W. J, Kiekwood, City 

 Marsh aL 



'I'ojjrl.ii. -Our dog tax is $2 for males and $5 for females 

 If the license is not paid we arrest the owner or harborer 

 and fine him S5 besides the tax. Any stray dog that we can 

 find no owner for, or no one who harbors him. is killed. We 

 have an ordinance that allows us to impound the dogs and 

 destroy them, but we found it much more effective to take 

 the man who harbors and fine him than to fool with the doe 

 — D. C, Met.-kek, Mayor. e 



Lea ecu worth — The tax on dogs in this city is males $1 

 and females $3. Unlicensed and stray dogs are shot. 473 

 were destroyed this vear and 1,100 paid license,— W W 

 Roberts, Chief of Police. 



Wisconsin, 



.Racine.— Our license on dogs is males §3 per vear, females 

 S5. Unlicensed dogs are shot, and they are then buried — L 

 H. Coleman. City Clerk. 



Milwaukee— The city imposes a license fee of $2 per year 

 on each dog. Whenever there is a person who has a dog in 

 his or her possession without a license, the party is brought 

 before the court and a fine imposed upon them. Dogs are 

 not impounded nor killed. Their offenses are visited on 

 their owners. — F. Paringer. 



Fund du Lac— We have no license for dogs and no pound. 

 At a certain time our ordinances require the dogs to be muz- 

 zled, and if not complied to they are shot by the police if 

 found, and all dead dogs we have buried, and we do not 

 keep any records.— Alex. McDonald. 



QsfiJiOSh —The Mayor of Oshkosh reports that the license 

 on dogs in that city is $2, aud on bitches $3. Stray dogs are 

 shot on sight, and their remains profitably utilized. 



Waukesha— We have no dog tax or dog pound — F A 

 Merrill, President. 



Nebraska. 



Hastings —La. theory at least we tax dogs $1, and bitches 

 m each. In default of this annual payment the animal is 

 dispatched or removed from the jurisdiction of the city. 

 The body is then buried in the earth to avoid offense. We 

 have no dog pound in the sense you comprehend it, and I 

 am unable^ to more than approximate the revenue derived 

 from taxation without consulting the records especially. I 

 would place the amount at $200 per annum. Population of 

 city 15,000. —A. D. YOCUM, Mayor. 



Fremont.— License on dog $1 each per annum. Manner of 

 disposing of unlicensed and stray dogs is to shoot them on 

 the spot, and carcass consigned to earth. About 400 con- 

 signed, but if any encouragement would gladly increase the 

 number.— B. P. Stouffer, Mayor. 



Omah.a— Oar city imposes a dog tax of $1 per annum. 

 We have no regular method of disposing of unlicensed dogs 

 except to authorize the policemen to shoot them, when they 

 are taken by the garbage master and disposed of to the re- 

 fining aud rendering companies, or thrown into the Mis- 

 souri River.— W. J. Beoatch, Mayor. 



Lincoln.— The license tax ou dogs in this city is *2 per 

 year. Our treatment of untaxed dogs, or rather those whose 

 owners do not pay license for them, is to let them live, 

 move and have their being, except perhaps when some scare 

 of hydrophobia is prevailing, when a few unmuzzled curs 

 are shot. They are not impounded and rarely ever shot. 

 Since 1 have been mayor I have made no war upon the 

 dogs. I will never order a dog killed because the owner re- 

 fuses to pay his tax, unless the dog be vicious, or mad, or 

 dangerous.— A, J. Sawyer, Mayor. 



Arizona. 



Tucson-.— Our city license on male dogs is $2, ou female $4 

 Unlicensed strays are caught and impounded by pound 

 master, and if not reclaimed within two days they are 

 destroyed. There have been about 500 caught and killed this 

 year: very few were redeemed.— W. E. Stevens, Mayor. 



Montana. 



th Una.— The tax on dogs in this city is *2 for males and 

 *4 for females. Stray dogs are impounded and killed after 

 three days. No use is made, of their remains.— A. C, Botkin 

 City Attorney. 



Oregon. 



I'ortland.— The dog license is, males $1.50, females |3 per 

 annum. Unlicensed and stray dogs are impounded and 

 after a certain time killed and buried. License fees collected 

 in 1887, $424. 50. — VAN B. DeLAshmutt, Mayor. 



Washington. 



Tacoma.— The Mayor of Tacom a reports that the license 

 fee in that city is $1 for males and $2 for females, and that 

 unlicensed and stray dogs are impounded and then dumped 

 in the bay. 



Seattle.— The license fee for dogs is *l per year, for bitches 

 $2.50. Unlicensed dogs are impounded and destroyed.— W. 

 R, Forrest, Clerk. 



New Mexico. 



AlbuQUiwque.— Our tax on dogs is $1 and ou bitches $3 per 

 year. Unlicensed dogs are killed and buried. —A. E. 

 Walker, Mayor. 



Wyoming. 



Cheyenne — We license about 100 dogs yearly: $3 for dogs 

 and $5 for bitches. We try to impound all unlicensed dogs, 

 and kill them by using poison after holding them four days. 

 Should owner of dog care to get one out of pound he pays 

 license aud fl pound fees. Cannot say how many we kill 

 yearly, about 150.— Wm. R. Schnitger, City Marshal. 



Utah. 



Ogd.cn City— We charge *3 per year, and destroy all not 

 licensed.— D. Eccles, Mayor. 



Arkansas. 



Hoi Springs.— The annual tax on male dogs is $1 aud on 

 bitches $2. The amount collected for dog tax was $547.50 

 and the expense incurred $118.35, leaving net $429.15, All 

 unlicensed dogs are impounded and killed within forty- 

 eight hours if not redeemed by payment of license fee, fine 

 of S3 and pound fee of $2. Number of killed about 400.— 

 M. McKeogh, City Clerk. 



Pine Bluff.— Dogs are taxed $1, bitches $3. Unlicensed 

 dogs are impounded and destroyed.— P.. King White, 

 Mayor. 



Little Rock.— The city tax on dogs is $1.50, and $3.50 on 

 bitches. Dogs found at large without a license tag are im- 

 pounded, and when there is a sufficient number they are 

 shot. Up to present date there have been 400 dogs im- 

 pounded, of which there have been killed 370.— Frank 

 Botsfoed, Chief of Police. 



Fori Smith.— The tax in this city is $1 a year. Unlicensed 

 dogs are impounded and destroyed. About 150 were im- 

 pounded and destroyed this year. 



Mississippi. 



Natchez.— Our city has a tax of $1.25 per dog. We get rid 

 of the miserable curs by giving them strychnine. The city 

 has a pound, and it is strictly kept bv our city marshal, 

 The dogs are afterward taken to the river and given to its 

 mighty stream.— Thos. R. Qvaetermax, City Clerk. 



Missouri. 



Muhcrly,—\Ye impose a tax of $1 per vear on males and Ki 

 per year on females. The marshal is instructed to kill dogs 

 found running at large after notice topavtax has been served. 

 — R. K Haynes, Mayor 



St, Joseph.— Our license is on dogs *l, bitches $2, with a 

 fee of 25 cents on each license issued. Unlicensed and stray 

 dogs are impounded for 48 hours, and if not redeemed are 

 killed by drowning, unless valuable, when thev are kept foi- 

 ls hours longer and sold for what they will bring.— Purd B. 

 Wright, City Clerk. 



Jefferson City.— The license tax is $L Unlicensed and 

 stray dogs impounded three days, and if not redeemed taken 

 to the river aud shot. The number destroyed this season is 

 70.— Geo. N. Winston. City Clerk. 



Hannibal:— Oxa city dog tax is $1 for first and $2 for each 

 additional dog owned by one person, We impound, and if 

 not redeemed in a certain time they are shot. Our dog law 

 is not strictly enforced, but is held for emergencies and some- 

 what of a restraint against an over supply. A strict en- 

 forcement of any arbitrary dog law would be very obnoxious, 

 except under exceptional contingencies.— J. B. Brown. 

 Mayor. 



Columbia.?— Our license is SI, Dogs not licensed by 1st of 

 May are impounded and advertised, and at the expiration of 

 three days, if not claimed, are killed and removed out of 

 town and buried. We have collected on about 150 and 

 killed about 50 this year.— W. I. Roberts, Marshal. 



Sc.da.Ua.— The license fee is $1. Unlicensed and stray 

 dogs are shot. 350 license checks sold this year.— W. D 

 Ilgenfritz. Acting Mayor. 



Kansas City.— The license fee is, males $L; females $3, 

 license tag 25 cents additional. Unlicensed or stray dogs 

 are impounded and drowned. Number of dogs drowned 

 from Jan. 1 to Sept. 21, 1888, 800.— W. O. Huckett, Sec'y. 



St. Louis— The dog tax is $3. Neglect to pay the tax is 

 punishable as a misdemeanor. Dogs caught at large with- 

 out collars and registered tags, and without muzzles when 

 the Board of Health orders that they be worn, are sent to 

 the pound, and may be redeemed by a payment of $3 in ad- 

 dition to the license fee, if due, and 50 cents to the dog- 

 catcher; but if in the opinion of the marshal it is not safe to 

 impound a stray dog, he may shoot him. Dogs impounded 

 and not redeemed within three days are slain, — M. A. Fan- 

 ning, Secretary. 



Kentucky. 



Covington.— We have no pound. Our ordinances impose 

 a license of $1 a year on each dog with a fee of 25 cents for 

 small brass tag to be worn upon the collar, but the license 

 is of little effect and is not enforced, consequently we have 

 a large population of useless curs. The only check upon 

 their increase is an annual slaughter during' two or three 

 months of those found running at large unmuzzled. The 

 mayor, by direction of the Council, issues a proclamation 

 that all unmuzzled dogs found on the street for sixty or 

 ninety days shall be destroyed, and the officers usually get 

 away with 300 or 400 in that way.— R. A. Athev, Mayor. 



Newport. — The license for dogs is SI, and bitches $2 per 

 year. Persons refusing to pay license are liable to arrest 

 and shall be fined not less than $5 nor more than $10. We 

 have no pound.— M. J. Cobtigan, City Clerk. 



Owensboro. — Our tax on dogs is $2.' We have no pound 

 for stray dogs. We kill them. — J. Lee, Mayor. 



Paducah— We don't license dogs. It is against our laws 

 for dogs to run at large unless they are muzzled. In the 

 summer months I hire a dog killer and have all killed that 

 I can. Sometimes we shoot them, sometimes we poison 

 them— anything to kill them.— Chas. Reed, Mayor. 



Texas. 



Houston. — Tax is $2 on males and «4 ou females. They 

 are killed by shooting or poisoning. They are not im- 

 pounded. No account of the number killed is'kept.— Eni i or: 

 E vexing Times. 



Denison. — The Mayor reports that the license fee on dogs 

 in that city is $1 and on bitches ^2. Unlicensed dogs are im- 

 pounded and destroyed. 



El Paso.— We collect $2.50 on male and *5 on female dogs 

 per year. We have to this date collected $100. We impound 

 dogs for three days; if they are not called for and license 



tax with 50 cents pound fees paid, they are killed.— O. B. 

 BeALL, City Clerk. 



Sherman.— No tax is levied on dogs. From June 1 to 

 Oct. 1 all dogs allowed to roam at large without muzzles 

 are destroyed.— ,T. P. Geren, Mayor. 



Fort Worth — The tax on dogs is $2.50 per annum. Stray 

 dogs are impounded and killed if not claimed in 24 hours. 

 This year the law was not enforced in consequence of higher 

 courts declaring it illegal and unconstitutional in Texas. - 

 H. S. Broiles, Mayor. 



Galveston,— There is an annual license tax on dogs of $1. 

 Only those who have valuable dogs get license. Have dis- 

 continued impounding. Police carry poisoned meat to give 

 stray dogs on the street.— Wm. Selkirk, Auditor. 



-4 U8i in .—There is no tax. When dogs get too numerous, 

 dogs are not impounded, but officers are instructed to see 

 that when a piece of poisoned meat is left down the dog 

 gets it, otherwise they must take it up. There have been 

 about 1,200 dogs destroyed during the present year last 

 pas.t — James E. Lucx, Citv Marshal. 



HUSKIES AT LAKE ST. JOHN. 



MR. CHAS. HA LLOCK, writing from the Lake St. John 

 country, 200 miles north of Quebec, which is now the 

 center of attraction for anglers from both sides of the inter- 

 national line, says: "In all my wanderings in Labrador and 

 the British Northwest, I have never happened upon such a 

 pure strain of huskies [see Forest and Stream, page 230, 

 Oct. 11,1888,1 as I have found at the Montaiguti's ludian 

 Mission at Point Bleue. While I was at Hotel Roberval, 

 those two redoubtable voyageurs and half-breeds, the 

 brothers Patrick and Prosper Cleary, who have made the 

 trip to James Bay via Lake Mistassini several times, came 

 down from the Point with two lovely pups of a maltese 

 color about two months old. Their ears were already sharp 

 and erect, and their tails had begun to curl and brush. A 

 perfect pair of dark olive-rimmed spectacles curved above 

 the eyes, and the gentleness combined with their brightness 

 to win favor at once. They were beauties. The pair were 

 offered to some members of the Springfield (Mass.) Club 

 for ten dollars, but only one was accepted at the price. It 

 was worth fifty! The other went back to its dam at the 

 Mission. And all the time, though conceding the bargain, 

 I was hoping it would be declined, for I never yet knew 

 these dogs to survive the hot summer of the unwonted lowe r 

 latitudes. It would be a sin to take them south to die. You 

 remember, when 'Esquimaux Joe' came back with Arctic ex- 

 plorer Hall, he brought two magnificent full-grown huskies, 

 which managed to live through the succeeding winter, but 

 they succumbed with the advent of hot weather, and Joe 

 himself never got acclimated, but died prematurely. A day 

 or two afterward I drove up to the Point in manager B. A. 

 Scott's rig and saw the old dam. There was never a finer 

 dog bred to travel. She has clone her sixty miles a day to 

 come to and travel. In color she was like a pure-blood 

 jenny, such as win blue ribbons at Kentucky stock fairs, 

 while she was wholly without that viciousness which is 

 peculiar to the regulation draft dog of northern regions. 



"Talk of mean curs, there is nothing in nature so 'ornary' 

 aud low down as the Labrador mongrel, which is employed 

 to haul wood and do chores along the North Atlantic const, 

 from Belle Isle Strait up. He is a composite of the worst 

 traits. Even the Moravian missionaries have not been able 

 to modify his vices. They are refractory in harness and 

 quarrelsome among themselves. Their drivers often have 

 to stun them to make them work. The big ones are kept 

 hampered with heavy wooden clogs fastened to their necks, 

 so that the weaker dogs may have a chance for their lives. 

 I remember once to have seen a gang of twenty or more go 

 over the face of a steep rock bluff in the bight of a scrim- 

 mage. Those which were not crippled by the fall continued 

 the tight. They seemed to enjoy it. Perhaps their ances- 

 tors came, from Donnybrook or Tipperary. When engaged 

 in melees they never give tongue. It is always a si lent game, 

 first, a wild rush and scamper something like a fox hunt, 

 only that everv dog takes his turn at playing fox, and then 

 a plunge, a halt and a surge, with an inextricable confusion 

 of dark, lithe bodies, and a ceaseless swish of restless, bushy- 

 tails. An old-fashioned football game on a college campus 

 is something like it. So persistent is the play that perfect 

 quiet reigns, a quiet so absolute that the spectator "might 

 think it peace, were it not that when the ganglion opens out 

 every dog looks as if he had a red flannel pad tied around 

 him. Of course, pluck, tenacity and endurance are essential 

 qualities to these burly creatures, which in their slavish 

 service to man are expected to do their forty miles per day 

 with loaded sledges on a single frozen fish for breakfast; 

 but one cannot help wonder why they are not more tractable 

 while yet so useful. 



"I once watched a scrimmage of this sort which occurred 

 just after a fresh fall of snow, and when the convention 

 finally adjourned there was a large oval discoloration at the 

 place, as if a barrel of mixed paints had bursted. It was an 

 essentially chewed up community. 



"My own impression is that the true husky type is better 

 preserved right here among the Montaignais of the Lake 

 St. John region, and among the Nascaupies beyond Lake 

 Mistassini, than in any other part of the continent, east or 

 west, unless I except the Mackenzie River district. The 

 coast dogs are no good, either in Labrador or Alaska, while 

 the once reputable canines of the interior Selkirk settlement 

 at Lake Winnipeg are sadly degenerated. Five years ago I 

 ranged the latter section of country all over to get a team 

 for my frontier exhibit at the New' Orleans Exposition, but 

 failed to find a perfect dog that could be bought for money. 



THE VANDALIA'S LOST DOG.-There is a small dog 

 along the city front that feels just about as disconsolate as 

 small dogs are supposed to feel when they have done any- 

 thing out of the way. This little dog, however, is rather a 

 hero, having survived the wreck of the Vandalia at Samoa 

 and returned with his shipmates on the Rockton to Mare 

 Island, where he was adopted by the crew of the Adams. 

 Having been boss of the Vandalia, this little dog, who gots 

 by the euphonious name of Nig, thought that he should 

 hold the same position on the Adams, and when it was dis- 

 puted by Lieutenant Winslow's setter, Nig became indig- 

 nant and whipped the Lieutenant's dog so badly that for 

 some time his life was despaired of. This was a horrible 

 indignity for the quarterdeck to sustain at the hands of a 

 forecastle dog, and Lieutenant Winslow ordered the sailors 

 to throw Nig overboard as a dishonorably discharged dog. 

 This was something the Jack tars could not think of doing, 

 and as they could not keep their pet aboard, and had no 

 means of getting him back to Mare Island, as the Adams 

 was about to go to sea, they brought Nig ashore and turned 

 him over to the Vandalia sailors, who were waiting along 

 the water front for their back pay and bag money. Getting 

 a dishonorable discharge after four years' service in the 

 Navy was pretty tough on Nig, and Thursdav night he 

 managed to get full. Yesterday he was sick and felt pretty 

 bad, and as he had never been ashore before he did not 

 know how to act. The number of people and the number 

 of dogs nearly drove him crazy, aud he lay down on the 

 sidewalk and moaned, The dog felt so bad ashore that the 

 Vandalia sailors are going to try to get him back into 

 the service in some way, and they think that after his gal 

 lant service in Samoa they will be. able to have Lieutenant 

 Winslow's dishonorable discharge set aside, and Nig re- 

 stored to his former proud position ou one of L'ncle Sam's 

 war ships.— San Francisco Chronicle. 



