i88i.] 
99 
A Defence of the Dog. 
luxury, which it is desirable to be rid of as early as possible. 
But to this conclusion the author of the article on “Modern 
Cynolatry ” seems to have arrived, and upon what are, to 
my mind, quite insufficient grounds. 
In the first place, your contributor assumes the com- 
parative uselessness of the large majority of the canine 
species, an assumption which cannot be allowed to go un- 
challenged. Wishing to keep the argument down to con- 
venient limits, we will not, as he has done, go beyond the 
British Isles to find our instances of combined usefulness. 
To take one very clear case, the utility of the sheep-dog or 
herd-dog is unquestioned, and although it is on unenclosed 
land that they are less dispensable, they are in constant and 
exclusive use in the driving of sheep, cattle, and other 
animals from place to place, in singling out individuals from 
a flock or herd, and so forth. Imagine such ordinary opera- 
tions as sheep washing, clipping, or marking, carried on 
without dogs ! At the same time, 1 doubt not that a large 
percentage of the biting laid to the charge of dogs may 
safely be attributed to collies and dogs of that strain, 
seeing that they are (with strangers) about the most uncer- 
tain and crossgrained of their race. Would it not be very 
hard that a farmer or shepherd should lose a cherished and 
valuable dog, because in a moment of mistaken zeal, it had 
once bitten a human being? Personally, if I were the 
vidtim, I should not think of exacting the penalty, firstly, 
because it would be greatly disproportionate to the owner’s 
blame ; and secondly, because the continued life and health 
of the dog would be the best guarantee of my own safety, or 
the clearest and most important index of the reverse. In 
this reference it is, perhaps, only fair to admit that I have 
never, though having to do with a good many dogs, been 
bitten in anger by a dog, though I have frequently had the 
blood drawn in accidentally playing with one. Several times 
I have been attacked ferociously, but invariably found the 
use of a stick or umbrella, or, indeed that of the voice suffi- 
cient to keep the brute off. One cannot help suspedtingthat 
Frank Fernseed has not been so fortunate in his experience 
of the kind and has at some time been bitten, with resulting 
cynophobia. As there are some men who never sit a horse 
well, however much they ride, so there are some persons who 
never get on well with dogs, while there are others, like Sir 
Walter Scott, who seem to have an extraordinary fascination 
for them and for all animals. Undoubtedly the one thing 
a dog respedts is courage, as is well illustrated by the story 
of Emily Bronte and the bulldog. The one fatal thing in an 
