Canine Code of Safety: Help for British Dogs

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 34, 10 February 1939, Page 5

Canine Code of Safety: Help for British Dogs

LONDON “ Sagacious creatures, dogs—jaywalkers, though—need a Highway Code —valuable scheme that —very. ’’ Mr Alfred Jingle, of No-Hall, Nowhere, (and of Charles Dickens’ “Pickwick Papers”) would have said something like that, no doubt —you remember his narrative of the gun dog that studied the notice board?—if he had heard of the new campaign by the National Safety First Association and the National Canine Defence League to increase the safety of dogs in the streets. Seriously concerned at the thousands of canine casualties on the roads every year, these organizations got busy. And as a result when dog owners (of whom there are more than 2,700,000 in Britain at present) go Io the post office to buy a. license for their pets in future they will find printed on the back a set .of rules, “The dog owners’ Highway Code. ’ ’ The code reads: ]. Train your dog Io come Io heel instantly when bidden and to remain there. 2. Never turn a dog out for exercise alone. 3. Whenever possible, give free exercise in the quiet byways, and park or recreation ground, or in open country. Use the busy highways as little as possible, and when there keep the dog under control. 4. On thoroughfares where there is no footpath always walk on the righthand side, facing on-coming traffic and keeping your dog on your right. 5. Never call a dog from the opposite side of the road when traffic is approaching. A special section applies to dogs riding in motorcars. “If not in the care of a reliable passenger,” the League ad vises, “the dog should be tethered by two leads—one on each side of the car in such a way as to prevent either his interference with the driver, or his jumping or falling out of the car.” The National Canine Defence League has also been giving its attention to dogs that are not so fortunate as to ride in motorcars but have to use the common or garden motorbus. Recently it has been suggested that a charge should be made for allowing a dog to ride on a bus. And a branch of the Central Bus Committee of the Transport and General Workers’ Union has actually voted in favour of such a

course. Threepence being the fare suggested. But opposition has been quickly forthcoming. Because, in the words of Mr Charles R. Johns, Secretary of the NCDL, “Fares for dog passengers would cause great hardship.” Mr Johns goes further than that and says “I cannot see that dogs are less wcl behaved than human travellers.” As matters stand, bus conductors use their discretion as to whether dogs shall or shall not be permitted to ride. And they take into consideration such factors as the state of the weather, the size of the dog and the number of passengers on board. Involved in the new suggestion appears to a rather interesting legal problem: Is a dog, for which a fare has been paid, entitled to a seat ?