HIGH COST OF KEEPING DOGS

Evening Star, Issue 22106, 13 August 1935, Page 7

HIGH COST OF KEEPING DOGS

AMERICANS LAVISH MONEY AND CARE ON THEIR PETS In many American city homes the time-payment man has called during the depression to take back the grand piano, the superior electric kitchen devices, the “ auto,” the radio, the dia-mond-studded watch, the encyclopedia of business or medical knowledge, the air purifier, and the homo cinema outfit; but most families seem to have retained their dog (writes O. H. Mendelsohn). In any other country this would not occasion much c6mment, but in the United States a dog is an expensive item. Chicago and New York proper are very congested cities, , yet the number of dogs seen and heard is amazing, not only in the parks, but on the crowded streets. Americans keep dogs, as do other people, because they love them, but it must not be forgotten that the possession of an expensive dog, especially of an unusual breed, confers a social distinction upon its owner, a matter of grave import in this democratic land.

In the last couple of days I have seen in my immediate neighbourhood dogs of almost every known breed, including Dalmatians, Pekingese, Chows, Dobermanns, Cairns, Boston terriers, Sealyhams,' Dachshunds, and lots of what the seed merchants call “ common sorts.” Scotch terriers are exceedingly .fashionable, but are on the wane. Many people in moderate apartments contrive to keep even such canine mountains as Great Danes and Irish wolfhounds.

On 72nd street, New York, is a restaurant wholly and solely for dogs. It is run on conventional lines, with a menu changed daily. For 30 cents (about Is 9d in Australian money at present exchange) a dog may sit or stand—according to his training—to a hearty meal of lamb stew with two vegetables. If you do not care to subject your pet to the indignity of even temporary association with dogs from homes not in the social register the restaurant people will deliver the meal to your dwelling place. Needless to say, “ our kitchens are always open for inspection.” Packing dog food is now an industry of importance. One large firm engaged in canning dog food is spending more than £2,000 a week on a wireless programme of good average music. Another puts up three types of canned dog food, flavoured respectively with beef, cheese, and fish. All the extravagant vitamin, enzyme, and similar hokum and buncombe that are so radiant a feature of modern food advertising are faithfully reproduced in the claims made for Fido’s rations. All the manufacturers emphasise that the food is composed only of the choicest ingredients, and is fit for human consumption. As a sidelight, a woman in an important advertising agency handling one of the dog food campaigns told me that the manufacturers had been surprised at the very much larger relative sale for the material in the negro sections of Chicago, until investigation revealed that the coloured folk appreciated the piquaint taste. There are stores specially devoted to materials of all kinds for dogs. Suits of warm clothing are made to order. Please accept as strictly true, also, the fact that dogs are fitted with shoes of the moccasin type as a protection against snow. The Dog Walking Service in New York, for a financial consideration, will send a reliable man to your apartment to take your pet for a walk. I had always innocently imagined that one of the chief jfleasures of a dog owner was the possession of a walking companion. One learns. As may be imagined, canine mortality is high under American city conditions, though most dogs receive lavish .veterinary attention. Dog cemeteries are available, and some of the tombstones must have cost a pretty penny.

Recently I saw a lino of men extending round three sides of a complete city block waiting patiently in the snow, with the thermometer at lOdeg Fahrenheit, for their daily howl of free soup. Yet when one of the professors of sur-

gery of North-western University issued a temperate and accurate statement of the medical aspect of vivisection he was bombarded with threatening and abusive letters, and was compelled to sock police protection. One gentle and nflectionatc lady devoted to dogs wrote; “ I wish you had a thousand throats, so that f could cut every one of them.,’-’