The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1868-12-15
The Dog Nuisance

| The value of sheep killed by dogs In the
| United States for 1866 is estimated BY the Com
missioner of Agriculture at two millions of dol
lars. The subsistence of the whole number of
dogs in all the States is estimated by him to cost
annually fifty millions of dollars.
| These are startling figures to an overtaxed
community, and should command the attention
ct the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Fif-
ty-two millions per annum lost by dogs, to say
nothing of the frightful deaths from hydropho-
bia which they occasion! We say lost, for, with
the exception of a very few terriers, sheepdegs,
pointers and hounds, they furnish little in the
way of t-off to the enormous charge resulting
from the depredatious aud consumption of food
Not h~c IN hundfed arc-of any value. The
efficiency of the watch dog is rendered of little
avail against professional burglars, who uss chic
reform or strychnine when irregular job presents
ITSELF which they administer even when door is
inte-posed between the burglar and the more
respectable animal.
Five hundred thousand sheep are annually
killed, amounting in value to two millions of
dollars, and the number annually injured is three
hundred thousand, at an estimated loss of six
hundred thousand dollars, and this wholly by
dogs.
The mere statement of these astounding facts,
and that fifty millions of dollars are required to
feed the five million dogs within the limits of the
United States would seem to be sufficient to call
upon Congress-which brings everything useful
to mankind within the vortex of taxation, to
afford some immediate and effectual remedy, and
we submit that the time is now propitious for
this effort when fondness for fox-h hunting will
readily be yielded to demands for food and for
that species of agriculture which will speedily
enrich over-worked fields, and furnish, in
the same instrumentality, means of clothing
our population. So far from the movement
being unpopular it will be hailed with delight in
the great wool growing States, and by all the
Southern States which have the benefit of noun
tain ranges, and particularly, also, by the west
ern part Of our continent, whose interest as WOOL
growers will be promoted by the tax. "The
Southern and frontier States (says the Commis-
sioner) show greater losses III proportion to eK-
tent of focks than central regions. The
reason is plain-there are more dogs under fewer
safeguards. In many of these localities Wool
growing is attempted and abandoned for the sole
reason of these unchecked ravages."
The dog is accounted the friend Of man. The
St. Bernard is noble animal, and frequently
saves human life, and constitutes an exception,
but the details of the ravages of the common
dogs among sheep-the better friend Of men
proves this to be otherwise. The instincts of
the sheep inform them that the dog is asnatural
enemy. He is not merely for food, but for
malicious mischief, as, having once tasted blood,
he will kill large f1ocks at single raid. One is
the consumer to the tune of over fifty millions
Of dollars per annum, the other producer to
the extent of uncounted miions.-Er.