The Meeker herald., 1896-08-01
rsss LONDON DOCS. HOME.

osvs oivss Three Days' Grac. and
Thea Destroyed.
Dvery morning vanloads of canine
oatcasts stand outside the dogs home
u tae battersea. Park road: and now
Ne again vanload of calcined bone
aaa ash goes out. says ST. James Ga
ssetA There is an interval of five days
oeeween the stages. The law requires
three. Three days after dog has been
h the hands of the police the original
rient OF ownership in 1t ceases, and 1t
ny De sold or incinerated as conven-
senoe dictates. The process is very SIM
pse ehd 1t goes on in London year In
ano year out, whether there is muz-
uiAs order in force or not. Every
mesnins covered van draws up before
ee0a oi the police stations in the met
ropohs. On each side are two rows OF
nnSs' and at the end is a galvanized
iron receptacle. The dangerous dog, If
thsfe De one. is brought out of the sta
uon shd put in the iron box; the harm
- "astrels are led from the police
yssu and tethered one by one to the
rnss. With the floor-space of the van
thue covered with animals, the horses
Mesa is turned toward Battersea. just
now there are not enough of these
speciai vans, and the police have had
70 requisition vehicles from the green
grocer or other local tradesmen. Ar
ryed at the dogs home, the vans wait
tnesr turn to pass into the yard, their
occupants filling the air with cries and
swelling the greater chorus within the
Walls OF the home. AS one van comes
out empty another goes in full. The
dogs are taken out, their place of origin
and description and any marks of iden-
tincation on the collar entered in
Dook, and then in groups Of tens and
tWent1es are taken into the kennels.
There they pass their days of respite
waiting Tor owners that come not, and
spending the hours in incessant bark
Ing and in pitiful and friendly appeals
to visitors. When the days of grace
are past they are led to the lethal
chamber. Just now the home is having
two clearances a day and is getting a
second furnace built for the incinera-
tion of the carcasses. Since the 1st of
January nearly 1900 dogs have passed
through the gates-the vast majority of
them to pass out again in the form of
calc1ned bone and ash, and of these
l2'ooo nearly half have come in since
the issue of the muzz' ng order. As the
home has accommodation for about
1000 dogs only and is hard put to 1t
to find kennel room, Notwithstanding
the additional space 1t has utilized un-
DER the railway arch, the rate of de-
struction can be imagined. The process
Of destroying the dogs is absolutely
painless The lethal chamber is the
invention Of DR.. Benjamin Ward Rich
ardson. and the writer of this saw 1t in
use recently. 1t is constructed SO as to
dispose of 100 animals of the terrier
class at time. The animals are put
into cage divided into two tiers, with
light iron bars at the sides. Mean
while the chamber Is filled with nsr-
cotic vapor. When the load is made up
the doors Of the cage are shut, the slid
.ne e-~-~.-os -.,......,,v. Nv -,..a >-A
the cage is run quickly on the tram
rails into the chamber. The death is
by anaesthesia. and such death is
death by sleep. The dogs are overcome
with drowsiness, the moment they
breathe the noxious fumes; in a single
minute they are in a deep sleep; in
three minutes they are dead. Close by
the lethal chamber is the crematorium
"a large oven kept at an intense heat
by brick furnace. When the cage is
drawn out the carcasses of the animals
are cast into 1t. There 8 momentary
smell as the hair of TIL lies ignites,
but that Is all. Who process is
completed there is ne but an in
odorous ash and incinJ bone.