Daily camera., 1899-02-11
DOGS ARE FAXED"
Cruel Methods of Making Pets Con-
form to Fashion.
A Long Course of Maltreatment HaA
Produced MalfOrmatiOns as
Permanent Types
of Dogs.

Time was when dog shows were asso-
ciated with beer and the church war
den pipe in an East end or wayside pub
lie house. when the owner Of a cham
pion bulldog fed his pet on pound OF
rump steak and let his family starve
upon a crust. The dog, too, got all the
kicks.
In our days we have changed all that.
The old-time dog show still obtains.
and you may occasionally see it adver-
tised in the sporting papers, but there
are two powerful associations, who
each in their way, with wealthy purses,
have improved the lot of the modern
day dog and given him social status.
But with all the power of these two
associations against them the tricks
and lodges of the dog takers of old still
obtain. They have simply changed
their coats.
The dog falfer of the past, to get a
very small breed Of pet dogs, kept the
lungs of the animals closed by compress
sion in puppyhood and by plugging the
nostrils at stated times stopped a
proper system of respiration. The mod
ern faker takes the relies of the older
days and inbreeds from the smallest
type of dog. and regulates the feeding
of his animals.
To make the eyes of toy spaniels
large, bulgy and round and the coats
a rich color the animals were kept
among the beer barrels in the public
house cellars in perpetual darkness,
while the spaniel pups were helped"
in the matter Of becoming very short
nosed by having the bones surrounding
the nose pressed I the head while they
were in soft and dltender cartilage state
To-day these methods are not so neces-
sary, for a long course of taking"
through many generations has at last
produced the malformation as a per-
manent type. but in the spaniel and
many other breeds of dogs the type
striven for is still 'helped.'
When the modern bulldog is chosen
from litter of pups the loosest-skinned
is marked out to work upon, and then.
TO put it kindly, ''the fun begins" AS
the pup gets along in life he is submit
ted to a process of skin pulling until his
head is one mass Of wrinkled skin and
hangingrolls offur. Painless, of course,
but still it is talking"
The more unscrupulous give an arti-
fetal kinB o the puppy's tail by break
ing the vertebra where nature has for
gotten to do t. and pulling the forelegs
out at the elbow to give breadth of
chest and general all-round looseness
of appearance. but this is confined to
few.
Bloodhounds, too. and pugs both have
to be "helped" at times, if nature does
not conform to the fashion. Landseer's
lovely big-eyed bloodhound in his pic
ture, Dignity and independence" is
not to the taste of modern connosseurs.
He must be padded with roll upon roll
of loose skin; his ears must hang low
down, and the eyes are all but sightless.
hidden awayas they are in overhanging
brows
Most people will notice how beauti-
fully the highly bred collie drops his
CulS oNSi' w NII' ti!SlC dlS tpS l't'NSiS
who keep in the dark, who, if they hap
pen to possess a good pup whose ears
are too strong, and consequently Will
not droD over. run needle through the
ear under the skin. and, keep the head
in splints, as it were, for some time, un
IL the ears drop.
Other methods are followed to weak
en- the nerves of the ears Sometimes
a drop Of acid is put on The nerve and
the ears are pulled and flaps Of weight
ed wood are fastened to tl'am.
Other ways of taking dogs include
the pulling out of white hairs and the
dyeing cf patches of white fur too big
to be pulled out. Cropping andIdocking
still fourishes openly, although the
kennel club rules are framed to stop
all Taking
It is left however for women to do
a great work in stamping out the arts
and lodges of a bygone. unenlightened
time, and in the Ladies' Kennel associa-
tion we possess q great purpose in do
ing away VIII ali fakes and fads of dog
dealers.-London News.