Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-06-14
AN AMUSING BUT GRAVE DEBATE

Mr. Hartman killed the Newfoundland
dog of Mr. Miller, of Waldoboro, Maine
The dog was within the premises of its
master at the time and under his care.
Hartman was indicted for the offense He
demurred on the ground that as he was
charged with killing domestic animal he
was guiltless, since the dog IS not such an
animal. While we believe the matter is
settled in California yet, as the full bench
of the Supreme Court of Maine long and
gravey deliberated on the question, it pos
sesses some general as well as amusing in
terest and especially to the owners of val
liable dogs.
Six justices sustained the demurrer, but
the Chief Justice dissented. The majority
OF the bench held that BY the common law
dogs belong to the wild class of animals,
and that legally they have no intrinsic
value; that though a man may have a
law property therein, and maintain a civil
action for the loss of them, yet they are not
of such estimation that the stealing them
amounts to larceny; that they retain in
great measure their vicious habits, furnish
no support to the family, and add nothing
in a legal sense to the wealth of the COM
munity, and are not inventoried As prop
ertv OF q debtor or dead mans estate, or as
liable to taxation except under a special
provision Of the statute that when kent
1t is for pleasure, or if any usefulness is OBJ
tanned from them it is founded upon the
ferocity natural to them by which they are
made TO serve as a watch or for hunting;
and that while because of his attachment
TO his master. from which arises we'll
founded expectation of his return when
lost, the law gives the owner the right of
reclamation. the owner in all other respects
has only that qualified property in them
which ne may have in wild animals gen
orally
But Chiei-Justice Appleton looked at the
matter very differently. He held that the
dog is the subject Of ownership, and in his
masters interest trespass, trover and re-
plcyin will lie for him. The property
right in the dog can be vindicated precisely
as are all other property rights in person
atty As to the dog being a domestic ami
mai. the Chief-JuStice resented the stigma
the majority of the bench would attach to
the faithful animal. From the days when
the first blocks of the Pyramid were laid, to
these, among all people the dog has been
found with man and attached to his house
Ii the dog was .fers nature, so were all ami
r,als once according TO the naturalists
The horse in state of nature was wild,
and even ferocious, and so were cattle, but
they have been reclaimed, and though do
INVESTIGATED have not been taken so closely
into the masters home as has the dog. The
dog was a part of the agricultural estab-
lishment of the Romans, and is a beast of
burden and draught in Holland France
and other countries to-day. Every where
he is treated as of value and as of use and
is bought and sold and traded on that basis
The people would certainly be astonished,
said the learned Judge, to hear that the bull
and the hog are domestic animals, but that
the dog is not The photographers define
The dog as domestic animal and so do
Bouyier's law dictionary and the standard
encyclopedias. Dogs are taxed, are seized
Upon by law, and Their value recognized,