VAGABOND DOGS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1925, 6 December 1913, Page 11

VAGABOND DOGS.

A PLAGUE TO THE CITY.

ANIMALS' PROTECTION SOCIETY INTERESTED.

Mr. F. Seed, Inspector for tho Society for tho Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' Society, is concerned about tho number of vagabond dogs, of ton diseased, and sometimes starving, that prowl about tho city 1 streets, lie is aivaro that the City Council lias a dogcatcher engaged in clearing tho streets of unregistered dogs, but that officer (.Mr. Scott) has had a spell of illness lately, which has prohibited him from checking tho nuisance, and in any caso Mr. Seed does not think that tliero is proper supervision exercised in regard to the vagabond dogs of tho city. Only tho other day his attention was drawn to a terrier, which had haunted tho Bank of Now Zealand corner for about a fortnight, and was plainly dying of starvation. On 0110 occasion he had fed tho dog (which, was unregistered), but found it later to bo in a terribly emaciated condition, so that in common humanity 110 placed it 011 tho box step of a cab, drove it round to the Corporation yards, and there gavo it/a happy dispatch with the aid of a cap-tive-bolt pistol. .There were, too, according'to Mr. Seed, a number of ownerless clogs running loose about tho streets, suffering from disease. These wero really a menace to tho health of tho city, inasmuch as their proclivitywas to hang about butchers' shops in tho hopo of picking up scraps, or oven something moro substantial, when a strict watch was not maintained. Only last week he had called in the "vet." from Mount Cook Barracks (Mr. Taylor) to examine a dog, which was making itself a daily nuisance to an adjacent. butcher. It was found to ho horribly diseased, and was there and then shot, and carried t.tf to the destructor. That dog was full of ringworm —and yet pcoplo wondered how their children playing about 111 the street managed to contract the disease. So serious is the position, that the secretary of the society (Mr. Henderson) and Mr. Webb, solicitor, had waited on tho City Engineer, and after laying the position before him. suggested that tho society might take the work in hand, as it fitted in with their objects and the work of tho society's inspector. At present tho lattr cial can only deal with cases of cruelty to animals, and to do anything further would rcquiro to have the authority of tho law behind him, hut so unsatisfactory was tho position respecting tho dog nuisance that they were of opinion that they could undertake the work to do it a deal more thoroughly than it is now done. Tho City Council will probably ,bo approached on the matter. In most of the larger cities at Homo there aro dogs' homes, wlicro all stray dogs, vagabond or otherwise, are taken,, and either nourished back to form and sold, restored to their owners, or destroyed, a3 circumstances warranted, hut "such facilities wero not availablo in ■Wellington, where it was cither a case of sell or destroy (in tho lethal chamber) ail unregistered dogs that happen to' bo caught by tho dog-snatcher. From Mr. Seed's observation,- little attention was paid to diseased or starving dogs, and the former wero certainly a grave menace to tho health of tho community. '