Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 201, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1918 — RISES IN DEFENSE OF DOG [ARTICLE]

RISES IN DEFENSE OF DOG

Toronto Newspaper Man Vigorously Condemns' Billy Proposal That They Be Killed Off in Wartime. A wrathful correspondent of the Mall and Empire suggests that dogs ought to be killed off in wartime or else such a stiff tax imposed upon their owners as greatly to reduce the dog population. Similar views have been expressed since the war in England. Only the other day Lord Claud Hamilton said that pet dogs are a nuisance and that If he had his way he would “slaughter all the Pekingese dogs in the country and have them made into meat pies.” Not long ago Punch presented a picture of a toughlooking , citizen grooming an equally tough-looking bull terrier, while a curate addressed him as follows: “Don’t you think, my good man, that in wartime you would be better employed in keeping a useful animal, a pig, for instance?” “¥us,” growled the dog fancier, “and a nice fool I'd--look goin’ rattin’ with a pig.” Proposals to destroy dogs are founded rather on personal prejudice or ignorance than on a consideration of the advantage to be gained by their extermination. The assertion that they consume much food that might better be converted to human use is not justified. As a rule dogs live on table scraps and odds and tnds of food which would otherwise be wasted. "As for the Hamilton suggestion about making Pekes into maat pies, it is probable that all the Peke® in the British isles would not provide a single enjoyable meal for one battalion. It is true that dogs frequently kill sheep, but they also kill cats and rats and thus help to square the account In thousands of farmhouses they constitute an invaluable guard for the women folk. They even do such chores as driving up the cows, churning the milk, fetching and carrying and performing other services that make amends for the undeniable fact that they get their hair on the furniture and come into the kitchen with muddy paws. At the front they are doing war work of undeniable value. In Belgium they are beasts of burden. They carry messages from the trenches to headquarters In the rear. They guard against enemy raids; they locate the wounded lying in No Man’s Land, and are a real pal to many thousands of homesick soldiers. A proposal to abolish dogs is about as sensible as a proposal to abolish nephews, and has about as much chance of succeeding.—* Toronto Mail' and Empire.