Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-29
ONLY HUMANE
METHODS USED
PASADENA SOCIETY MASTERS
DOG PROBLEM
STRIVES TO SAVE ANIMALS, NOT
TO DESTROY
Finds Ways to Make Owners Pay
Tax and 1t Is Seldom Neces-
sary to XIII the
CANNES

The crusade of The Herald against
the inhumane system of handling the
dog problem has brought forth scores
of letters and many words of commen-
dation from those who, previous to this
time, have only given the subject cas-
ual thoughts.
Reports of the cruel way dogs are
treated when caught in the dog catch
er's net, the brutal manner in which
they are crowded into small covered
wagon, are constantly being brought
to The Herald, with requests that they
be Investigated and efforts made to
have the animals treated with more
kindness.
the average person who has paid at
tention to the question has come to the
conclusion that the entire system will
have to be changed In order to correct
the evil, and, If some responsible per-
son or society is placed at its head and
the owner punished instead of the dog,
1t will not be long before all the'
CANNES of the city are wearing tags.
Any dog whose master cannot be
found could be taken to the pound and
there treated with kindness until such
time as some person agrees to care for
him, or, If no one is willing, he can be
killed in humane manner.
Arthur Nv. Line. treasurer of the
Pasadena Humane society, an organ
tered the proper way of dealing with
the problem, said yesterday:
Tells of Work
'The ordinance under which we work
is the old ordinance under which the
city hired dog catcher to net and
impound and dispose of every dog
whose tax was unpaid. There has been
no new legislation and no change in
the ordinance That Is dangerous bus
mess. The city simply hires us as 1t
would contract with any party to do a
given thing. The city attorney draws
up "a contract at the instance of the
council, and we sign it. We agree to
see that the dog owners pay their Ii
censes to the city treasurer and to
humanely dispose of all stray and
homeless dogs. We also agree to take
charge of the pound and do the work
devolving on a poundmaster. The city
agrees on its part to pay us one-half
of the dog license money and all OF
the pound fees.
I'VE simply take advantage of sec
ton IL and go after the owner instead
of the dog. We seldom take a dog.
II we cannot find the owner we take
the dog, and IL we cannot find him a
good home where they will pay the
tax we destroy him. But we seldom
have to kill dog. We have more ap-
plications for dogs than we can sup
ply. The worthless and sick soon be-
come scarce.
Dogs Worth Money
I'm Pasadena healthy dog is worth
rs cents a year to US and also to. the
city, consequently we never destroy a
good dog unless we cannot place him
after reasonable time. Other cities
destroy every year hundreds and
thousands of good healthy dogs free
of all charge to the owners. thus de-
priving themselves of the right to col
lect license fees on these dogs. In Pas
adena we cannot afford to be so gem
erous. We charge for such services the
cost of burial.
1--WE collect ali pound fees and run
the pound The city furnishes the Ii
censes and tags, and we make every
body go to the city treasurer and pay
his money We handle none of the
money and are not bothered to keep
the accounts. The city hands over our
half every six months.
1--WE keep four by six card index
record of every dog and owner, which
Is obtained from the treasurer's office.
This record shows name. sex. breed.
color, tag number license date, also
owners name, address and telephone.
These cards are arranged alphabetical
ly under guide cards, giving eighty
subdivisions. In addition to this we
are using metal movable indicators
along the top of the cards, so as to
enable us to pick out at glance all
the cards of a kind, or requiring sim
ilar treatment. We can thus classify
them under headings thus: Not IL
censed, notified, Home phone, Pacific
phone, mail, arrested, dog, lost dog
dead, ETC. We also keep numerical
index of tag numbers and can thus To-
cate the owner of dog wearing tag.
Officers on the Alert
"Our officers are on the alert, and
when they find an untagged dog, or
one is reported to the office, they locate
the owner, and he Is asked to buy
tag, be arrested and fined or give up
the dog, at our option. We soon have
tab on the dogs and the names and ad-
dresses of the owners. When We can
not telephone we send notices to the
delinquents by mail, call upon them,
and occasionally arrest one for an ex-
ample, have him fined and well adver-
tised in the papers. Then lot rush IN
and pay whom we had not discovered.
I'VE have but one tax, S1.60 for any
dog. 1t should be double for females.
If it were, only good ones would be
kept, and they would be taken care OF.
For a kennel we charge for ten dogs
at the regular price and let them keep
as many as they choose. sometimes
they have more and sometimes less.
"aThis year we shall get our half.
$685. This means 1155 dogs, as against
375 when we began four years ago. We
should have the whole Of the amount,
then we could give better service and
maintain a temporary home and a hos
pital for small animals, and also keep
down the surplus cat population, quite
problem in itself. We could also em-
ploy special officer when needed.
APART altogether from the humane
standpoint, and the elimination of the
annual row over household pets, we
have tab on practically all the CANNES
in the city and can put our hands on
any one dog within a very short time.
This is a very important thing to the
public health. In case of an outbreak
of rabies or some other dog disease the
average city could not properly enforce
a rnuzzling law, as under the dog
catcher system probably 45 per cent
of the dogs are officially unknown.
Many Dogs In City
"pasadena, with population Of
about $4,000, has officially 1151 dogs, for
the fiscal year 19O7-OS, ratio OF APP
proximately one to every twenty-four
people. Our neighboring city of Los
Angeles, with population of 100000,
more than ten times as large as Pasa-,
dena. had during the same fiscal year
only 6122 licensed dogs, a ratio of one
to every forty-nine people Assuming
the conditions to be similar, then about
one-half the dogs in Los Angeles are
not licensed.
Pasadena is, of course, more of a
~ oe;xla,on oity than Tos Angeles. and