Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1889-12-03
DOGS PRONE TO MADNESS.
Are Some Breeds Nero Subject to the
MalAdy Thar OeAers.

4 MalAdy Thar 09hers?
Harrison Weir. the English artist
and illustrator, renowned as student
OF natural history, writes to The Lon
/ don Standard on the subject of hydro
| phobia as follows: A shoft time since
| letters appeared in The Standard re-
! lating to the muzzling of dogs, etc.
One from a vegetarian stated that If
dogs were fed on vegetables there
would be no madness / was too busy
at the time to reply to this assertion,
but now do so. l had collie dog
that to my knowledge was never fed
on other food than biscuits in the win
ter and oatmeal and vegetables in the
summer, yet for all this the dog went
mad-nor was it bitten, as no wound
could be discovered on it Again, how
will the vegetarian reconcile his the
DRY with the fact of the deer in Rich
mond park going madf Surely these
never tasted meat
Again, / cannot think for one mo-
ment that those who keep entirely
useless dogs ought to object to the
other portion of the community en-
deavoring as much as possible to pro-
tect themselves from direful, painful,
horrible death What a man keeps
for his pleasure ought not to be to the
detriment of others. / know of moth
ing SO wearying to the suffering, tired
and sleepless as the continued barking
of the dog; but add to this the also con-
tlnual fear of madness, and is it too
much to ask that such dogs should be
prevented from doing bodily harm
either to the human or brute creationf
But this is not the reason of my
writing, though it leads to IT. For
| fhnt1rht
be well if the breed of every dog show
ing particular and sudden ferocity or
madness could be reported, and thus it
might be observed whether any one
breed was more prone to the outburst
than another. For a very long time |
have endeavored as much as / could to
find out whether there existed any diff |
ference in this respect, and, as far as |
can ascertain, in all truthfulness am
bound to say that l believe there are |
more retrievers on the list than any |
other breed-eight or nine to one. |
Very few fox terriers, two or three |
pointers, two spaniels, no greyhounds |
nor dachshunds, no poodles, but the |
number of retrievers have been extra
ordinary and continuous
Only short time since in converse
ton with friend who kept retriever,
l said Il would not keep one if were
paid 5000 year" Why" said he, |
..you would find he is the most de- |
lightful dog" etc. l saw my friend |
the other day, when he told me the
dog had suddenly bitten several chill
dren and had to be destroyed, and he
then mentioned other cases. When
l last wrote on this question l called
attention to the retriever, and l re-
ceived a number of letters, all stating
cases within the writer's knowledge Of
the peculiar unreliability of the breed.
may add, although l am very fond
of dogs, nothing would induce me to
have or keep black retriever
What l wish to ask through your
columns is this, that in some way or
other a report should be furnished
either by the police or others, making
known in cases of madness or at in
quests the breed or breeds of such dogs
for the purposes of science and for
noting whether it is really undesirable
that such and such breedA should ha
kept at all. am told that the Pome-
ranian is an unreliable dog, and in
some countries is not allowed, but of
this am not acquainted But l think
it is time that some method should be
adopted to learn the statistics of mad
ness in the breeds of dogs, so that
some measures should be taken to pre-
vent the fearful consequences of by
beyond that of simply muz-
zlinp