DOGS AND MOTORS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 29, 27 September 1912, Page 4

DOGS AND MOTORS.

In a County Court case heard recently the question was raised whether the driver of a motor car should sound his horn if a dog is in his way. It appears that defendant did not do so in the case referred to, and the dog was fatally injured. Its owner suggested that if the horn had been sounded the dog might have been saved, but the judge seemed to believe that it would have been useless, as dogs know nothing about Aqte of Parliament and motor horns. 1 A correspondent commenting on this, remarks that dogs have cars, and when a noise is made suddenly in their vicinity it

will quite naturally draw their attention. Probably dogs have their moments of lassitude and inattention, but when they are awakened to a motor car bearing down on them they will usually get out of the way. Possibly the drivers of cars will not be agreed as to the degree in which a dog will take notice of a blast from the horn, but it would be very unfortunate if the chance of disaster were increased by any misapprehension about the dog’s habits and faculties. Drivers who are careful enough where children are concerned will slacken their precautions very much when it comes to dogs, and still more perhaps with hens. This is inevitable; but with these creatures a high degree of care should be exercised, and consideration for them should only stop short at real danger to the public or to the occupants of the car. This is only fair reasoning, and the average motorist has no desire to leave a train of dead dogs or even dead poultry in his track through the land.