Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1899 — NEW YORK'S POUND [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW YORK'S POUND

EW YORK’S dog pound is known JMI by the more comforting title of shelter for homeless animals. It is the temporary abiding place, chiefly, of the smaller animals that once served as household pets, but have at length lost home and friends because no longer amiable and pretty, and have been brutally turned into the street, or because they have wandered away and can’t tell where they belong. Dogs, cats and goats make up the endless procession of unfortunates to a shelter over whose door, In spite of its beneficent purpose, might in truth be written the inscription, “Abandon hope who enter here.” Very few of the poor brutes that find their way to this temporary home ever come out alive; in fact, it is for the purpose primarily of humanely ending their existence in a world which cannot or will not tte good to them. This shelter for homeless animals is not a municipal institution. It was brought into existence and is controlled and supported by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This society is supported, in turn, by popular subscription and by the income from legacies. But it has the sanction of the municipal govern ment and is authorised to exercise cer-

tain authority, such as the collection of homeless and diseased animals and to make arrests of persons who are guilty of cruelty to animals. So far as the work of the society relates to the shelter it employs three wagons in Manhattan borough, three in Brooklyn and one in Richmond, or Staten Island. These go out daily with driver and catcher and scour the streets in every direction. They may go in answer to specific calls from householders who wish to be rid of their former pets, but otherwise they go up one street and down another, in this part of the city to-day and that tomorrow, always on the lookout for a stray dog or eat or goat. If one of these is found without master or collar it somehow runs its hapless neck into the noose which the catcher handles "so deftly and is landed in the wagon. These seven wagons turn in from 225 to 250 small animals daily. At the shelters, of which there is one in each of the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Richmond, they are put into clean and roomy cages, given good, square meals to eat, nice beds of straw or sawdust to sleep on, and, best of all to most of them, kind words make the world a paradise. All are kept in the cages for forty-eight hours, except those that are hopelessly afflicted with disease or injury, «o that owners may have opi>ortunlty to redeem them. Any properly identified dog is delivered back to the owned on payment of $3, the fee for a license, if it wears no collar to indicate that it had no license. Dogs with license tags attached, if any such are brought in, and cats are returned to the owners without charge. It is possible, too, for anyone ,in need of a household jet to secure a dog or cat which is perfectly healthy if assurance can be given that the animal will be given a good home and good treatment, and on payment of the $3 license fee in the case of the dog. This money is turned over <o the city. All small animals that are gathered In as described are put to death at the end of forty-eight hours unless reclaimed or given new homes. The method is a speedy and painless one—asphyxiation by ordinary illuminating gas. In each of the shelters in the several boroughs of the city there ia an iron box. whose dimensions are something like 10 feet in length, G in width and 4 in height. Access to it is had through a door, which is one entire end of the box, hung on hinges at Ute top. In the top of the box are windows of glass, through which can be seen everything that takes place within. An iron pipe 3or 4 inches in diameter, connected with the street gas mains, admits the deadly vapor in so great a volume and so quickly that the box full or dogs or cats, when the time of taking off comes round, soon contains only their corpses. The dead bodies are turned over to the board of health, which transports them to Barren Island. Here,- skins, bones, hair, claws and fat are reconverted to new uses, for the wastes of a great city are all put to some use. A Year’s Work. * According to one of the recent reports of the society which has thia work In charge 21,741 dogs were received In one year. Of this number 3,192 were returned to their owners

and 397 were placed in desirable homes. Of cats, 24,140 were received. Twenty-four were returned to tbeir owners and eighty were placed in good homes. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was organlezd and incorporated April 10, 1866, and was the first society organized in America for the protection of animals. Its founder and first president was Henry Bergh. Among the originrf charter members of the society were many of the most eminent citizens of the city and State of New York. The purpose of the association, as set forth in its constitution, was “to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States, to enforce all laws which then were or might thereafter be enacted for the protection of ani-

mals, and to secure, by lawful means, the arrest and conviction of all persons found violating such laws.” As a matter of fact, the only law of that kind then to be found on the statute books of the States of the Union, was that which had been passed by rhe Legislature of New York nine days after the incorporation of the society. Within twelve months, however, another “act for the more effectual prevention of cruelty of animals” was passed by the Legislature of the same State; and from time to time additions have been made to it, so that now there is hardly a phase of cruelty which the society has not the legal power to prevent within the boundaries of the State of New York. The legal definition of the word "animal” now includes every living creature except members of the human race, and the words “torture” and “cruelty” Include every act, omission or neglect whereby unjustifilable physical pain, suffering or death is caused or permitted.

MAIN CORRIDOR.

DEADLY GAS CHAMBER.