The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-06-24
HOW DOG CATCHERS
I ARE NOW WORKING
Some Pathetic Scenes at the
Pound Keepers
SHAG AND HIS FRIEND
Cruel Methods Practiced on Stray
Dogs In ngham-Dfferent
Here From Some of the
Other Cities.

OF all the animals of the earth the dog
is the only one that will leave his kind
and attach himself to mankind. And it
has been said that every good man is
fond of a dog. There is a strong bond of
sympathy and seeming mutual under
standing between them,
The dogs devotion Is beyond limit. He
will even starve to stay with his master.
Under his present domesticated conditions
of life the propagation of the species In
the cities is larger than is convenient,
and many dogs literally go begging Hence
the necessity of a dog poll tax and the
pound keeper. In birmingham this of
flcer Is kept busy, catching as many as
twenty-five of these unlicensed waits
day. The average is about twenty.
When Caught.
They are caught by the dog catching
brigade. consisting of a man clothed with
police authority and four negro boy pris-
oners. who in this way work out their
time. When caught the stray dogs are
locked in pen and when unclaimed for
three days they are drowned. In New
Orleans, New York and in fact nearly
DNiiNi
Simultaneous and painless by asphlxia-
ton. The method used in catching them In
most places is also more humane. A big
net which Is used is thrown over the I'M
licensed dog and by this means he is lift
ed into the wagon.
Here in Birmingham, however, his cap
ture is different. A wire loop at the end
of a stick in the hands OF the negro boys
is thrown over the dogs head and In
many cases choking and yelping as best
he can with a wire drawn tight round his
neck he Is dragged half block to the
wagon and swung into it. The dog Is then
put in the first Of the three houses for
the purpose at the pound between Twen-
ty-first and Twenty-second street and
Fourth avenue. The ones that have been
two days are in house No. . The third
day he spends in No. 9, and the next, if
still unclaimed, he is put in box and
drowned In water from a mud puddle
back of the city stables at the garbage
pile in the southwestern part of town.
Story of Shae.
When the owner comes and claims his
dog at the pound he has to pay 50 to
get him out, 81 for the license and 81 goes
to the pound keeper. Yesterday afternoon
u negro was there looking for his dog.
negro and his dogl The attachment has
become proyerbial. When the waist high
door was opened there was an array of
eager dog faces with knowing looks as
though each one was certain that his time
had come to get out, and the air was
full of wagging tails. The Negroes face
fell He did not see his particular dog
until a stir among the prisoners revealed
a fuzzy little black bunch about as big
as ball Of yarn. Then there was a mu-
tual recognition. and "Shag," a Span
lard" as the negro explained, was paid
out like any other prisoner. Although the
negro said he had one tag at home al
ready he did not hesitate to dig into his
pockets until he had gotten together the
So in nickels and dimes, and said to the
pound keeper, Now he can go any
where he wants to can't he boss?" 1t
was hard to tell going down the street
which was the happier, the negro or the
dog.
If "Shag'' hadn't had a friend he like
some eight or ten of his companions In
the pound would have been taken out by
tho garbage pile Monday morning and
drowned in this manner:
There is box about three feet square
standing by a muddy ditch of water -Four
or five dogs with weights around their
necks are dropped in to the box and
drowned. Then tho bodies are thrown out
on top of the garbage pile for the hogs
to hold a post norton over. They are
buried maybe by the next load of garbage
that comes out and maybe not Several
dead dogs have been lying there for
some time and are still there without be-
ing covered up in this happy hunting
ground of theirs.
Most of the dogs taken up on the
streets go this way. Last summer out
of the 907 caught without license tags
only 63 were paid out.