The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-13
POLICEMEN, UNDER MAYOR DOR
ANS ORDERS, BEGIN THE DE-
STRUCTI0N OF DOGS.
ORDER CANNOT BE ENFORCED
so FAR AS COMPELLING OWNERS
OF ANIMALS TO USE
MUZZILEgS.
BUT THE CANNES THEMSELVES
Can Be Made to Suffer If the Officers
Follow Out the Orders Given
Them.

The order Of Mayor Doran to Chief
GOss relative to the enforcement OF
| the dog-muzzling ordinance was read
TO the police at the several stations
Thursday evening and yesterday morn
ing. The order called the attention OF
the patrolmen to the provisions OF the
| ordinance which requires all dogs run
ming at large to be muzzled, and also
| directed that each patrolnan should
make census Of the dogs ON his beat.
Nothing was said, however, about the
fact that the ordinance doesn't pro-
vide a penalty for not obeying it.
Patrolman Ryder, Of the Ducas street
station, as soon as he heard the order
went cunning for dogs. He was the
first man on the force to make a rec
ord under the new order The officer
was informed that two dogs owned by
Henry Michaud, living on Robinson
street, were frightening the chickens
belonging to residents in the vicinity,
and incidentally causing some alarm
among the children in the neighbor-
hood. A telephone message was sent
to Relief Agent Hutchins, who also
acts as agent for the society for the
queSting that gentleman to accompany
the officer and see that the dogs were
humanely put ont Of existence Mr..
Hutchins was not in his office, so Pa
trolman Ryder started on his errand
alone. Having ascertained that the
dogs were not duly licensed, he pro-
ceeded to dispatch them with bullets
from his revolver, and succeeded in do
Ing so without any injury to himself
or any Of the neighboring residents
AS stated in the G o b e yesterday,
the ordinance gives the mayor the
right to order the muzzling Of dogs at
any time during the year, but there
is no provision for the Enforcement of
penalty in case the owners Of dogs
should not obey the order. Owners of
dogs may do as they like about that
part of 1t.
When this matter was called to the
attention of the mayor, he Is quoted
as saying: Il fail to find any penalty
provided for persons who refuse to
muzzle their dogs, but nearly every
body Will think they are compelled to
muzzle them, If they are notified by
the police that such is the case"
Just how much attention will be paid
to the orders of the police officers, as
to the muZZling of the dogs under
this state of affairs, remains to be
seen. A member of the assembly, in
speaking of the matter yesterday, took
the same view of the scare" as did the
mayor. He was in favor, however, if
1t was considered necessary, to pass an
amendment to the ordinance which
would provide a. penalty for not muZ-
Zling dogs after the order had been
issued. 1t IS possible that an amend
mont of this nature will be presented
to the aldermen at their meeting Tues
day evening"
Mayor D9ran still claims that he
does not believe there is any hydropho-
bia in st. Paul. Such a large number
of citizens who believe there was dan
ger from rabies, however had visited
him, that he was obliged to issue the
order. The pressure was strong, and
especially so from the fact that the
health department and the citizens
based their demands on the theory that
he was supposed to see that the ordi-
nanceS Of the city were enforced.
Some one suggested yesterday, that
the administration would probably take
advantage of the talk about rabies and
vicious dogs. to bring up the scheme
of having a secret service in the dog
catching line. Last fall the plan was
ell, Of having a number of dog catchers
appointed on the strict q. t., for a
couple of months This plan, 1t was
claimed, would take the owners Of dogs
who had shipped them out of the city
or locked them up during the time the
regular dog catchers were around, by
surprise, and the result would be that
a large revenue would be gathered in
by the city.
On the question Of the scare, Mayor
Doran is quoted as saying:
There is no reason for al this
scare" he said "but the people are
pouring into my office, claiming that
the women are so frightened that many
Of them are afraid to go upon the
streets. There is such a dread of dogs
that I have been told that there is
danger of some of the ladies falling in
a faint upon the streets when they
come in contact with a dog, after hav-
ing read some of the sensational re-
ports which have been published in the
papers. 1t was, to tell the truth, be-
cause Of these women that / issued the
order, and not because l have any
particular faith in the source Of the
scare"
From this 1t is very evident that his
honor will not take any active steps
looking toward an amendment of tho
ordinance which would make it a pen
atty for a disobedience Of the order he
issued.