Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-10-07
WHAT ABOUT The Dog
Public Attitude Toward the Humble
Canine.
DOGS ARE ENTITLED TO FAIR DEAL
This Writer Thinks That Sentiment
Toward Dogs is Not at All credita-

'''S '''''NS 'sp~~
Toward Dogs is Not at All credita-
BILE to Public Sentiment.
(Estelle Aubrey Brown, in "our Dumb
Animals")
Ever since the World War began to
make demands on the American peo-
pie to save food, we frequently see and
hear opinions expressed similar to the
following quoted from an Idaho Indian
journal: Q
I'VE presume even a dog may have
it's place in the world, but it is beyond
our capacity to understand the need
for the animals. Worthless
dogs consuming good food when there
is not sufficient in the world to
feed the human race. Chickens
and pigs are good food for man, but
the dog is worthless. Why not be-
come little more practical? Kill the
dogs and raise sheep, chickens, pigs
and other useful animals. The big
dog and the little dog, the old dog and
the young dog, should be condemned
and executed and the food sent to the
starving women and children; who
will be very grateful for it. Number
the dogs and do your duty"
Since our friend with the intestinal
point OF view confesses he has not the
capacity to understand the need for
dogs, it is perhaps useless to try to
impress upon his limited comprehen-
sion Of human emotions the fact that
to the majority of people dogs are
friends, whose proved worth during
many years is not based upon gastro-
nomic possibilities.
Because a dog-and I am speaking
of real honest goodness dogs, not q
Pekinese y-product-because a dog
offers to our friend no attraction in the
culinary line, he cannot grasp the fact
that numberless people would willingly
deprive themselves rather than see the
family dog shot. If, as he suggests, we
commence being practical by killing
the worthless" dumb animals, sever
ing the ties Of affection with which
dogs have bound themselves to the hu-
man family by their loyal devotion
and often unmerited constancy, let US
also strike blow at our esthetic i'm
practicalities, that in our efforts to
feed the hungry we at least act con-
sistently. ''--l-
Let us then, convince our Bern
hardts and our Paderwskis of the error
Of their ways and instruct them in the
beauties and obligations Of truck
gardening. Let us convert our public
Fairgrounds into cow pastures, and
our art galleries into cabbage patches.
Let us grow onions instead Of roses,
and turnips instead of tulips. Let us
have a pig pen where the i'ac tree
once grew, and a fattening squad in
the birdcage.
A consistently practical man would
say, Why should the state heavily tax
its sane, self-supporting citizens for
the maintenance Of thousands Of idiots
and criminal insane, who not only are
of no service to mankind (you cannot.
eat them, you know, but are a very
real menace? If the state only had an
intestinal point of view, upheld by that
sense of duty we are adjured to enter
tain, it would dispose Of these human
burdens and send the enormous
amount Of food they consume real
food, not scraps-to the aforesaid
starving women and children.
Canine aristocrats doubtless con-
sumo good food, but the average dog
| lives on table scraps. Our friend cries
kill the dogs and send the food to the
starving women and children" Being
practical man, he doubtless has yisu-
allied ships sailing for Europe with
cargoes of garbage cans and dog bis
cults for the grateful women ana
children. Was it an oversight, or
doubt as to their gastronomic capa-
blities, that he failed to include men
among the beneficiarieS?
1t is obviously true that an object
desirable in itself may easily become
undesirable when INDUCED in beyond
reason. Three dogs at a time, like
three wives, are apt to prove incor-
venient to a man and annoying to the
ncighbors. 1t seems reasonable man
should be satisfied with one each,
though I am aware that the possessor
of a kennel or harem will disagree
with me.
There are degrees of desirability in
dogs as we'll as in citizens. Personally.
| do not know why woman selects a
Pekinese when she might have chosen
an Airdale But, then, neither do I un-
derstand why men, apparently Of
sound mind, choose as wives the coy
ing, clinging-vine type Of woman, who
functions mentally by rejecting his
opinions when he is present and main
tanning a comfortable vacuity in his
absence No doubt the mental attri-
butte that leads a man to marry
human bit of moss also leads a wCnan
to choose a Pekinese.
Dogs go mad, to be sure, from heat
and thirst, but no dog ever went mad
from sensual indulgence. We find 1t
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