DOGS IN AMERICA

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6541, 24 February 1928, Page 4

DOGS IN AMERICA

A REMARKABLE INCREASE. JUDGE AND HIS BEST FRIEND. NEW YORK, Jan. 11, Dogs are increasing largely in America. In New York their number outside the metropolis, has doubled in six years. American Kennel Club stud books show that entries last year numbered three times the number of four years ago. In New York City 162,000 dogs were licensed by the municipal authority last year. An Atlantic City Judge recently wrote the following tribute to his dog:—"Man’s heart would be saved many a bitter sorrow if men and dogs had the same span of life. Since the death of my dog my heart has been so heavy with grief that I have ,not been able to bring myself to the pblnt of writing or talking about it until now. I cannot understand why t&e span of a dogs life, man's best friend, is only one-tenth the span of a man's life." Just as dogs have repaid affection by giving their lives for their owners, so instances are multiplying of human beings taking chances to save the lives of their dogs. Two men rowed through the ice-packs of the swiftflowing Connecticut River at Springfield, Massachussets, to save an Airedale terrier marooned on an ice-floe. In New England floods a woodcutter was found isolated on an island by the rushing waters. He was exhausted from exposure, but his sweater was wrapped round his dog. The problem of dog-ownership is always settled in Courts by the animal itself. In a recent Michigan case, 13 witnesses supported the claim of the plaintiff, for ownership, while the sarno number supported the claim of tho defendant. As the dog was a bit of a philanderer, the Judge had him convoyed to the homos of both. When ho reached one, the dog proceeded to an obscure corner of tlm yard dug up , bone and curled up contentedly in

the kennel. No further proof was asked. “Let ’em loose,” ordered the Governor of New York State, when told his seven dogs were tied up when sneak thieves broke into the executive mansion at Albany , and stole two of his -coats. “I want to be sure of having some clothes to wear when I get ;up, In the morninp-” :