Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1870-09-15
farm aud Household.
TheDog Nuisance.

4uOOOS Nu1SduC0.
The value of sheep killed BY
dogs in the United States for
1866 is estimated by the Commits
sioner of Agriculture at two mill.
ions of dollars. 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
over-taxed community, and should
command the attention of the
Commissioner OF Internal Reve.
nue.. Fifty-two millions per an
mum lost by. dogs, to say nothing
of the trightful deaths from hydro
phobia which they occasion! We
say lost, for. with the exception
of @ very few terriers, sheep dogs,
pointers and hounds, they furnish
iittle in the way of set.off TO the
enormous charge resulting from
the depredations and consumption
of food. Not five in q hundred
are of any value. The efficiency
of the watchdog is rendered of
little avail against professional
burglars, who use chloroform or
strychnine when a regular Job
presents itself, which they admin
lister even when a door is inter-
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 ev-
erything useful to mankind within
the vortex of taxation, to afford
some immediate and effectual rem
edy, and we submit that the time
is now propitious for this effort
when a fondness for fox-hunting
will readily be yielded to demand
for food and for that species of
agriculture which will speedily
Zurich over-worked fields, and
furnish, in the same instrumental
iiy, a means of clothing our own
population. So far from the move
meut 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 mountain ranges,
and particularly, also, by the ives.
tern part of our continent, whose
interes: as wool growers will be
promoted by the tax. "The South
ern frontier States lsays the Com
missioner) show greater losses in
proportion to extent of focks than
more central regions. The rea.
con is plsin-there are more dogs
under fewer safeguards. In many
of these localities Woodworking is
attempted and abandoned for the
sole reason of these unchecked
ravages."
The dog is accounted The friend
of man. st. Barnard is a noble
animal. and frequently saves hu-
man life, and constitutes an excep-
ton, but the details of the ravages
ofthe common dogs among sheep
the better friend of man
proves this to be otherwise. The
instinct of the sheep informs them !
that the dog is is natural enemy.
He is not merely for food, but for
malicious mischief, as, having
once tasted blood, he will kill large |
fiocks at a single raid. One is the
consumer to the tune of over fif-
ty millions of dollars per annum,
the other producer to the ex-