Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-06-14

Generally by the people they are recognized |
as domesticated, and to say that because |
they were once, in remote time, wild, is no
reason for denying them to be of property |
value to their masters or incapable of being |
the subjects of otfense under the criminal
law. The dog being property, its owner IS
entitled to have it protected under the law,
and the defendant should be punished for
killing it,
In other words Chief-Justice Appleton
would have us understand that because
some of the rusty maxims of the law do
define the dog to be not domestic, but
wild animal tanned, and therefore not prep
erty in the fullness of the term, it is time
to break away from the doctrine, and apply
to the status of the dog ordinary reason
ing, and he contends vigorously that the
chief and only substantial reason for hold
ing the dog to be not domestic animal is
because the common law declared it to be-
long to -" the wild class, and that it is
time that doctrine was departed from.
Judge Appleton, had he seen fit to enter
the realm of psychology in his opinion,
might have fortified himself with some
strong arguments antagonistic to the dogma
of the common law. Thus DR.. Romanes, in
his recent work, Mental Evolution in
Animals, treats of domestication upon the
basis that in a great variety of instances
wild animals develop new instincts under
domestication, so that, indeed, the whole
nature is changed and the animal becomes
new variety of his kind The training
to perform certain kinds of work causes the
dwindling of natural instincts and the for
nation OF new and special instincts. Arti-
fetal education and selection by man are
influences the same in kind, says the doc
tor, though not in degree, as those of ma
tural education and natural selection.
After citing the case of the cat as in point,
the eminent scholar calls attention TO the
history of the dog and the horse. If the
truly wild horse" now existed we would
find its disposition totally at variance
with that now characterizing mans best
friend" Instructive wildnesS, he insists,
is wholly eradicated from species sufficient
ly long exposed to the influences of domes-
tication Darwin holds that some degree
of selection and habit have concuTed in
civilizing by inheritance our dogs. Hand
| cock Celebrates proof to show that do
mesticatiOn obiiterates wild instincts.
Thus in some parts of the world
where the dog is used for food
and is fed on vegetables. the carniver-
Gus instinct is wholly lost. The dog then,
is .fers nat'tr& by history, and is not now
in true sense related to the wild animal,
but is a domestic animal as much so as
the horse or OK. Romanes points out that
the only primitive psychologist features re-
naming in the dog are those which are
neither useful nor harmful to man, because
| neither cultivated or repressed such as
turning round and round to make bed,
hiding food, etc. The ideas of ownership
and property, he holds, have been bred
into the dog by the intelligence of man.
Thus most dogs, without special training,
will defend the property of their masters
and recognize the right of ownership of
their masters in them. Darwin refers to
the sheep dog the retriever and the pointer,
to illustrate the special domestic instincts
of the dog, and which are not in the re-
hottest degree inherited from wild proto-
types. Pointing is of no use to the dog,
only to man, and is an acquired habit
through artificial selection, whereas wild
or natural instincts are exclusively for the
animals own good, says the same author
ity. Andrew knight says in his " Hered-
itary Instincts, that no such animal as the
"Springing Spaniel" would have been
known but for the acquired art of shooting
birds on the wing. Romanes concludes
that in the domestic dog are few, if any,
qualities met with in wolves, foxes, iackals
or wild dogs generally. The ,og, then, ac-
cording to science is a product of domesti-
cation, and is as much domestic animal
by right as is the horse, whatever the con-
sideration Of the law In short, its do
mestication has advanced to such plane
of faithfulness, affection, docility, intelli-
gence and all other emotional qualities
that Darwin justifies and quotes the re-
mark of the old writer dog is the
only thing on this earth that luys you more
than he luvs himself"