Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1905 — KILLS FRED’S CHICKS. St. Bernard Dog Makes Away With Forty-four Plymouth Rocks. [ARTICLE]

KILLS FRED’S CHICKS.

St. Bernard Dog Makes Away With Forty-four Plymouth Rocks.

Erastus Peacock’s big St. Bernard female dog broke into Fred Phillips’ chicken yard Saturday night and killed 44 of his fine full blood Plymouth Rock chickens. The brute was caught in the act by Charlie Robinson but escaped before a well deserved supply of cold lead could be pumped into his carcas. Fred valued the chickens at much more than the market price, but is told that he can only get damages for what they were worth at the poultry houses. This amount, it is also said, must come out of the township’s dog fund. It is said that the township has already paid five claims previous to this one, caused by this same dog, amounting to probably $25 or more, during the past few years, to Mrs. Fritz Zard, Wilson Shafer, Joe Nagle, Joe Putts and Wm. Washburn, and Fred thinks something ought to be done to put a stop to any further ravages of the animal. He put the matter before the city council at its meeting Monday night and it was referred to the city attorney to find out what action the city could take in cases of this kind. The chickens killed were extra fine ones, of pure blood and would not have been sold at hardly any price. The dog did not eat any of the chickens, but just grabbed one at a time in his mouth and crushed the life out. Peacock says that his dogs were at home at the time, but parties who saw the animal that did the mischief claim to have recognized it as his dog and say it ran from Phillips’ direct to Peacock’s. The damage was done between seven and eight o’clock Saturday evening, and the moon was shining brightly, making it almost as light as day out, so that the dog could easily be seen.