THE USE OF BLOODHOUNDS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3010, 6 October 1908, Page 3

THE USE OF BLOODHOUNDS.

The use in England of the bloodhound to track criminals is sr> rare that considerable interest attached to the efforts of the Liverpool police to hunt down the mrderer of a little girl by means of one of these dogs. Three attempts were made, but though the dog led the police for miles about the city, it did not lead to the arrest of the murderer. At the fir3t attempt, the dog led the detectives for eighteen miles, until the officers had to desist from sheer fatigue. But, if experts are to be believed, the police erred in not employing the dog at once, instead of waiting until the crime was sev- . eral days old. Indeed, it was wonderful that the dog followed the trail the way it did, seeing that it led through a busy city. Mr George R. Sims points out that the ability of the bluodhouud to track a criminal is apt to be over-rated. "No dog, alter a lapse of tirfle and the continual crossing of the human scent, can be expected, except in melodrama, to make straight for the murderer and seize him." Major Richardson, a well-known authority ou the training of (Hogs, says the only satisfactory feature of the business is the recognition by the authorities of the usefulness of these dogs in such cases. ■ The police should be provided with properly-trained bloodhounds, all unnecessary handlipg things touched by the murderer should be prevented, and a dog should be put on the trail as soon as possible. The moral 4 s, be says, that the English police should make use of dogs in their woik against^criminals, as the police do in other countries. There seems, however, to be a feeling that public sentiment would not tolerate this. The bloodhoand> has acquired a very sinister reputation, one which, according to a writer in the "Pall Mall Gazette," is quite undeserved. Many good people would protest against the hunting down of criminals by bloodhounds on the ground of cruelty. "A blpodhound never touches his quarry when he captures him. All he does is to sniff the man and his work is done. Memories of slave-hunting days die hard, and it

is not easy to convince the average person that a milder-mannered dog than this beautiful hound never walked. Some day perhaps bloodhounds will become more generally popular. At present a decent specimen costs money, and he has an unpleasant habit of dyinp of distemper. After he is once over this scourge of the canine race he is as hardy as others.''