This dog was of a morose and dignified disposition, surly with
strangers, and inclined to quarrel with any one who carried a stick or
whip in their hands; never forgetting an injury, and growling whenever
any person who had offended him made their appearance. He was also
particularly irritable and tenacious of his rights when hunting,
shunning all puppies or heedless dogs, and exhibiting a very irascible
disposition if superseded in a point by another dog; and on one occasion
attacked a young pointer in the field, who, in opposition to all his
growling and show of irony, would persist in crawling before him, when
on a point.--L]
DOG-CARTS.
These were, and still are, in the country, connected with many an act of
atrocious cruelty. We do not object to the dog as a beast of draught. He
is so in the northern regions, and he is as happy as any other animal in
those cold and inhospitable countries. He is so in Holland, and he is as
comfortable there as any other beast that wears the collar. He is not so
in Newfoundland: there he is shamefully treated. It is to the abuse of
the thing, the poor and half-starved condition of the animal, the
scandalous weight that he is made to draw, and the infamous usage to
which he is exposed, that we object. We would put him precisely on the
same footing with the horse, and then we should be able, perhaps, to
afford him, not all the protection we could wish, but nearly as much as
we have obtained for the horse. We would have every cart licensed, not
for the sake of adding to the revenue, but of getting at the owner; and
therefore the taxing need not be any great sum. We would have the cart
licensed for the carrying of goods only; or a separate license taken out
if it carried or drew a human being.
It is here that the cruelty principally exists. Before the dog-carts
were put down in the metropolis, we then saw a man and a woman in one of
these carts, drawn by a single dog, and going at full trot. Every
passenger execrated them, and the trot was increased to a gallop, in
order more speedily to escape the just reproaches that proceeded from
every mouth. We would have the name and address of the owner, and the
number of the cart, painted on some conspicuous part of the vehicle, and
in letters and figures as large as on the common carts. Every passenger
who witnessed any flagrant act of cruelty would then be enabled to take
the number of the cart, and summon the owner; and the police should have
the same power of interference which they have with regard to other
vehicles.
After a plan like this had been working a little while, the nuisance
would be materially abated; and, indeed, the consciousness of the ease
with which the offender might be summoned, would go far to get rid of it.
CROPPING.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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