917 
Cabrera, 1931, J. Mamm., v. 12 (1), Feb., 54-67. 
Flower & Lydekker, 1891a. An Introduction to the Study of Mammals, Living 
and Extinct, pp. i-xvi, 1-763. 
Leunis, 1883a. Synopsis der drei Naturreiche, v. 1, pp. I-XV, 1-1083. 
Pocock, 1929a<Encycl. brittanica, ed. 14, v. 4, 896-901. 
Pratt, 1923a. A Manual of the Vertebrates of the United States. CARNIVORA, 
pp. 273-296, figs. 156-159. 
Purpose of the present bulletin. — See p. 413, Bui. 152. 
The public health importance of cats, dogs, and various other 
carnivores is rather extensive. For instance, these animals come into 
consideration A, as food; B, as beasts of prey; (7, as distributors 
of parasitic diseases to man and to various animals used by man as 
food; D, as domesticated animals; as scavengers. 
A. Carnivores as food. — A number of carnivores are used as food 
by man; bear meat especially is relished by many persons. Various 
domesticated and wild dogs are used as food in different countries; 
while dog meat is not a recognized article of diet under the meat 
inspection laws of the United States there are special meat inspection 
regulations covering this subject in certain countries of Europe; for 
instance, dogs slaughtered for food must be killed and dressed in 
certain restricted portions of slaughterhouses; dog casings are for- 
bidden in making of sausage ; isolated instances of house slaughtering 
of pet dogs for food occasionally occur in the United States. In 
general the precautions advisable for thoroughly cooking pork should 
be applied in cooking dog meat. Dressed cats have occasionally 
found their way into the meat market, being sold as rabbits", but 
this fraud has practically been eliminated by the food inspection laws. 
B. Carnivores as beasts of prey or predatory animals. — The cat is one 
of the great destroyers of birds. Dogs, wolves, and their allies and 
some of ,the felines come into serious consideration in connection with 
the destruction of sheep and of some of the wild food animals such as 
deer. The name Carnivora indicates the food habit of these animals 
as flesh-eating animals and at times their depredations are important 
economically. Many of the wild carnivores are dangerous because 
of their attacks on man. 
C. Carnivores as distributors of parasitic diseases. — A considerable 
number of parasites are distributed to man and livestock and to 
wild animals by various carnivores. Thus hydatid disease in man 
and many other animals, gid in sheep and their allies, one form of 
pseudotuberculosis in cattle, hydrophobia in man and livestock, 
several intestinal worms in man and a number of acarine infections 
in man and various other animals are disseminated by the carnivores, 
especially by the dog and its allies. 
D. Carnivores as domesticated animals. — The dog plays many roles, 
for instance, as household pet, companion, watchdog, beast of burden, 
messenger, aid to the blind, hunting dog, following and capturing 
