STRAY DOGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 258, 30 October 1926, Page 36

STRAY DOGS.

A PLEA FOR HUMANE TREATMENT.

t (By F. B. FORESTER.) "In short, animals are not machines, since they have souls, and are able to think and make plans. Above all, they feel and suffer, which is my point at this moment."—Juan Valera.

Curiously enough, it is from bullfighting Spain that this sentiment, a most admirable one with respect to our ' subject, comes to üb. But all Spaniards are not in favour of bull-fighting any more than are all Englishmen upholders of fox-hunting. Incidentally, it may be said in passing that each of these two nations regards the national sport of the other as being infinitely more cruel than its own. Without, however, discussing the ethics of either the one or the other, let us pass on to a subject much nearer horne —stray dogs.

Dogs. They are always with us, and at present they seem, owing to the contention at Devonport, to be in the limelight even more than usual. It is scarcely possible to glance through a paper in which the dog does not figure in some way, or in which someone has not a grievance against him. Either he barks too much, makes himself too much at home on the beaches, or else, as is, unfortunately the case at present, he is the victim of cruel and malicious poisoning at the hands of some person unknown. But the aspect in which he figures most is as a stray, either haunting the waterfront or roaming the streets of Auckland and its suburbs, much to the annoyance of its citizens, who complain loudly of being kept awake by hia barking, this being the only way in which the matter appears to trouble them. As the dispute already referred to has shown, the dog—that is, the registered dog—does not lack for champions to take his part. But there are none to ■how favour to or speak a word for the unfortunate strays —strays through no fault of their own. And yet; to quote once more the words of the brilliant Spanish essayist, "they feel and suffer, which Is my point at this moment." No reference is intended, of course, .to the puppy or older dog who clearly has a home or ah owner, although for the time being he may have lost the run of both; but to the dogs that have obviously neither one nor the other, and roam the streets, unfortunate outcasts, sleeping in ] doorways. and beneath - verandahs,, and ! finding food' where and how they can. The plight of these poor creatures is a I disgrace to any city, and this all the! more because Aucklanders themselves are mainly responsible for their existence. If people when changing house, would remember to take their dog as well as their furniture with them, and M dey_wncrs would only take the tronwa te destroy; humanely, all unat birth,'; the problem

of stray dogs in this or any other city would be very near solution. Of coarse, to go to the root of the matter, the suggested extra tax on female dogs would go far'to remedy, the existing state of things, but this is evidently a matter for future legislation. As it stands at present, however, the origin of many of these poor strays is something like this: A litter of puppies, fat round balls of fluff, beautiful with the beauty of all young things, are .playing round their mother, while the proud owner is exhibiting them to a friend. "What darlings!" gushes the latter. "Such dear little pets! Have you one to .pare, or are they all promised? I must have one for Tommy—he would simply love it." So on, and so on, and the owner who is really fond of the little mother, and honestly glad to secure a— presumably—good home for the puppy, willingly promises it, and in due-course home it comes, to be petted and made much of, at first. So far so good, but in j a few weeks' time things change. No one ■ takes the trouble to train the little creature in any way—and puppies need to be trained much as children do—Tommy grows tired of his pet, besides,'with the shedding of the baby hair.much of the baby prettiness has gone, the mongrel parentage being thereby increasingly revealed, while, most important of all, the day for registration is fast approaching. In short, the puppy is voted a nuisance, and the end of it is that he is either "strayed on the street," the meaning of this phrase being that he is taken to a strange part of the city and there purposely lost; or else conveyed across to the North Shore, Devonport being a particularly favoured dumping ground for unwanted dogs, and, while the unsuspecting little animal is playing on the beach, his late owner jumps aboard the next boat, congratulating himself upon having got rid of the little beast "withi out any cruelty."

Has het How about the terror and hunger of the poor little- creature, so cruelly abandoned, used at all events if not to kindness, at least to food and : shelter, and now left without either one or the other. Possibly the homeless little animal may be taken in by some humane I dog-lover but if not, there is no pros- ! pect before it but to become a stray, an J Ishmael of the canine race, his teeth ! against those of every other dog, and every other dog's teeth against him. This kind of thing has been going on, one is credibly informed, for Jie last 20 years, and yet people wonder why there should* be stray dogs in Auckland and its 1 suburbs. For it is a case of tit for tat; j the North Shore "loses" its dogs in the city when it tires of them, in % precisely [similar way. Probably the individual who, wishing ' to get rid of his dog, went into a shop in Auckland, and leaving the poor creature waiting at the door,.sneaked out by I a back way, thought himself very smart, but one would rather not do business with a man who could play co low down a trick, even on a dog. Such people must be singularly wanting in imagination,' as well as heart. Otherwise, one would think, the remembrance of the poor faithful creature, all unfed, waiting, with the ran fidelity that only be-

longs to dogs, for the return of the master ~ who had so cruelly duped him, would. i have come between that master and his i sleep at night. Perhaps not,' however, since most probably, -in that owner's opinion, it was "only a dog." ! Only a dog—but what is covered by that disparaging phrase T It covers a devotion that knows no limit, a fidelity that cannot be shaken, a love stronger than death. Consider a moment. Your little dog there may be a mongrel, perhaps; but could any power on earth make that. little creature .cease to love you? You know very well it could not; such love is not to be bought or sold, r "You may bribe a soldier to slay a man, or a witness to take life by false accusation, but you cannot make a dog tear i his benefactor." The man who wrote that . knew more of dogs—and of men—than most of us are likely to do; and his words would be echoed by every doglover. Perhaps Byron's epitaph on his "Newfoundland Boatswain":-— I "To mark a friend* remains these atones arise, ' I - ver knew bat one, and here be Ilea." May to some appear too sweeping and merciless towards humanity; but there is many a man—and woman too—sorely bruised by life's bufferings, having found too, perhaps, that 'most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly," who; has turned in loneliness to the love of a dog as a sure and perfect thing. For, as Scott goes on to cay, "The Almighty, who gave the dog to be the companion ol our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit. He has a share of man's intelligence, but no share of man's falsehood." The dog has deserved better of us, my mastere, than the treatment he too often receives. We can do better for him than to allow him to become a stray and an outcast; and he a<=ks of us so little. Kind treatment, suitable food, a clean and dry bed, .shelter from the sun in summer and the cold in winter; and a point that many dog owners, otherwise kind, are apt to forget, a run each day, in the course of which he may have access to grass, in which the dog finds hie natural medicine. Perhaps, ere long, that home for lost dogs, which has been so long a dream of the S.P.C.A., may materialise, and a shelter thus be found for the waif- and strays of our city. London has such homes;' why should not Auckland have them? But in this matter it is up to Auckland citizens to do their bit.