Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1889-02-06
The Dog Pound.

rooms, corridor running through the
center. and three cages for imprson'
ed dogs calmly awaiting redemption
or death. In summer business is live
ly; in winter it is dull. The pound
is low frame building situated on the
gravel beach Of the bay.
One of the rooms IL an office. occu-
pied by the keeper, n superannualed
police officer, who is there nearly
every dsy in the year, and has met
and made he acquaintance in the last
three years of more than 5000 dogs.
Many dogs, from repeated visits to
the cherries cages, have kept up a
long and intimate acquaintance with
the keeper; but many more have
been smothered to death in the bay,
and passed to the happy hunting
grounds of Caninedom.
The other room is used as n store
room, in which arc reserved surplus
of instruments of execution and pro-
visions for sustaining life. AT the ex-
treme lower end of the corridor is To-
Gated the dog scafiold. Ii is not an
exact scaffold, but is an instrument
Of death Just as effective, and one
from which not one Of the 5000 or
less unhappy and moaning CANNES,
fearful Of death, has ever been known
to escape. 1t is painted red, and is
windlass. At the other end of the
rope is an elongated iron barred cage,
heavy and resting on wheels. 1t Is
let down into the calm and unruffied
waters of the bay over track built
on a platform which extends with slow
and gradual descent below the surface.
The dogs are brought to the house
of execution in a box wagon by the
dog catcher. This is an individual
under pay of the police department,
who roams the city with a long net
at the end of pole, in which the UNI
wary and unlicensed dog finds himself
all tangled up. Every Alpena dog,
less harmful than occasional speci-
mems of brute humanity found at large,
must have a license to live. If he is
skulking around the back alleys and
swill tubs in pitiful search of a bone
to satisfy the cravings of hunger, he
must die, if caught, or show on his
collar a tag from the Secretary of Po-
lice The neglect of many dogs to
make the acquaintance of thesecretary
has brought them to a sudden and I'M
timely death. But the dog is born
with free and equal rights, and he has
The privilege Of choosing between an
with the secretary and
riding down in an iron carriage to a
death,
On arriving at the dog pound his
logship is put into cage No. l, and
IN successive days into cages 2 and B
The corridor fronts Of these cages are
of iron bars, and one or two
Vt them have elevated horizontal
blanks in them on which the dogs may
20 to roost or retreat from the perse-
buttons of vicious companions. On
he evening the third day the dog is
Is good Ms dead. Sometimes the ago
~ of existence is prolonged until the
morning of the fourth day. If the
bird day of grace falls on Sunday he
$ not destroyed until Monday. If
,ftcr the expiration of the first day
he dog is not claimed by his owner
VI purchased, and mn intention declnr-
ID to take out license for him. he is
ooked with a long pole through
mail hole into the second cage and
10 on into the third All disposition
IN the part of the canine prisoners to
make life unpleasant for each other
rs long as it lasts, or any cannibalistic
tendencies is manifested to hypothe-
.ate chunks Of each others hide, is
quickly and very forcibly discouraged
oy the same long pole aforementioned
n the hands of the keeper. There
ire dogs Of all ages, sexes, sizes and
Of health in cages. Dogs
With long hair and short hair dogs
With whiskers and dogs without; dogs
With bob-tails and dogs with no tail
It all. There is the brindle dog and
he dog with a hue like unto the terre
,otta dogs with one eye and two ears
md dogs with no ears worth noticing
Ind two eyes. dogs with lame legs
md broken legs: toothless dog and
logs that will bite anything from an
ron bar to pickle; dogs with cool,
aim and Indifferent personality dogs
hat are fond and afectionate, cheer
i'll and risky; dogs that never do
nything but growl and show their
angs dogs that bark and play, with
cath an hour away; dogs which seem
0 understand the crisis of their exist
nee and look up at you through the
AIRS and whine.
The time for execution has arrived.
he helpless hrutes are taken one by
ne out of the cage of despair and put
nto the car Of destruction until it is
all of scrambling, yelping creatures.
he windlass is let loose; the heavy
ar by its own gravity begins to move !
|owly down the descent. As it pro- ,
eeds the rate Of speed doubles and
edoubles, until it shoots into the wat
r with splash and last yelp of de-
pair from its terrified inmates. The
'ater rushes through the bars. In
mother second they are at the bottom
f the bay, and in fifteen or twenty
minutes the dogs are dead. 1t re.
uires, sometimes, half an hour for
ncking pups to drown. The carcass
5 are bought by fertilizing compan-
IS, and the skins are tanned and made I
ITO gloves and other wearing appar-
!. c
The above is copied from the De-
roit Free Press, with this exception, !
nat we have substituted the name Of
Ilpena for Detroit, and made few I
ight changes. We print il so that =