Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-03
BITES OF MAD DOGS.
A City's Catcher Chewed by a Hundred
Ours.


Music from the throat of half a hum
bred yelping ours greeted the ear of a re-
porter who went to the city dog-pound
yesterday, says the Philadelphia Record
of the oath inst. These dogs had accu-
INFLATED there since Saturday, and the
Assistant Superintendent, Walter Bates,
expects hundred more before the end of
the week. Two hundred and thirty were
killed last week by the painless process
adopted by the Women's Society for Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Animals, and the
supply gets larger every week. The
statistician of the establishment kindly
counted up the number Of luckless CANNES
smothered to death since the pound was
to be exactly 37,151, the odd dog having
been disposed of on Monday.
The pound is on old Lamb
Tavern road, few hundred
yards from the big new build
ings in process of erection for the State
fair next fall. To get there one is COM
PEELED to indulge in a half-mile walk
through a dust stratum fourteen inches
deep from the end Of the Sixteenth street
line of cars. Two families live in the
pretty little cottage connected with the
pound, and they have many visitors.
Most of them como for lost dogs. Occa-
sionally an inQuisitiVe reporter drops in;
but by far the most singular people who
find their way there are persons who have
been bitten by dog, and either bring the
animal out to have il killed or come to
find, if possible, dog which has bitten
them, in order to take away some OF its
hair as an antidote for hydrOphobia.
"Of COURSE" said Mr.. Bates, who has
the utmost contempt for a dogs bite and
laughs at the hydrOphobia idea, ''we treat
all such persons kindly and humOr their
fancies. They are, strange to say, mostly
Germans, who have queer notions about
dogs. Recently burly dray driver came
out in a state Of mind bordering on insani-
ty. He was frightened to death becausea
little dog which he was attempting to cap
ture had bitten him on the hand. The cur
had escaped from him, and he
thought it might have been taken by the
dog-catcheTs. That hope brought him out,
and he was taken into the pound. Here,
sure enough, he found dog which he was
satisfied was the one which had bitten
him. He then graYely proceeded to cut
off about a quarter of an ounce OF the
dogs hair, wrapped il up carefully and
placed it in an inner pocket of his vest.
The man was delighted, and beyond doubt
felt the utmost confidence in the potency
of the charm to keep away the dreaded
hYdrOphObia. Scores and scores of such
people have been out here. These people,"
continued Mr.. Bates, 'dOn't care whether
the dog is killed or not, and in this pres
ent a strong contrast to others who
imagine that the death of a dog which has
bitten them is their only salvation. This
theory, is as a general rule, held by women.
Mothers whose children have been bitten
frequently make a pilgrimage to the dog
pound, where they expect to find the Of
Tending cur and have him promptly dis
patched. Sometimes they bring the luck
less cur with them. They have not had
the pluck to kill the dog themselves, and
are better satisfied with the painless pro-
cess" The mails at the dog pound house,
Mr.. Bates says, contain frequent inquiries
as to how the dOg-catchers avoid hydro
phobia, and whether they have any anti
dote for the disease. The reporter was
shown quite bundle of such letters. AS
he thumbed them over thoughtfully the
superintendent remarked:
sit is all mOOnshine, this hydrOphObia
business. Why, old Bob Scott, who was
our head dog-catcher for ten years-he
died last fall-was bitten by dogs more
than 100 times. Some of the dogs were
what would be considered 'mad,' but he
lived through it all, and never thought of
hydrophObia. A little pup bit me few
days ago and then went mad; but l am
not afraid of hydrophObia. Aaron Har-
vey, who has been catching dogs in Phna-
delphia for many years and who took
Scotts place on the force, has been bitten
many times by all sorts of dogs, and has
not come to any HARM"