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Show ' . L , s . Kesuits V 1 Accos One Y Every Dog Most Wear a Muzzle A Dangerous Dan-gerous Proposal i to Discriminate in Favor of Small Dogs A YEAR has now gone by since New York's dog-muzzling law went into effect, with the object of stamping out hydrophobia. hydro-phobia. The results have been remarkable. re-markable. They show conclusively conclu-sively that the Health Department, Depart-ment, which was bitterly assailed in certain quarters for enforcing the law, was entirely right, and that the way to stop the" horrors of rabies is to stop dogs from biting bit-ing people. It is now suggested to the Health Board by Mr. James G. Rossman. of be Dog Lovers' A.o:-iation thai "toy dogs," that is to say dogs weighing not more than twelve or fifteen pounds, should be exempt from the muzzling-law provided they were under the control of the owner or attendant while in public piacos on a leash not exceeding four feet in length, and provided 1 hat the owner obtained a permit from the Board of Health, in the same way as individuals are required re-quired to obtain permits to carry pis'o!:;. and such permits or a speckd tag is attached to the dog's lesh. Dr. Gokiv.ater has acquiesced In this general idea and onlythe details de-tails remained to be worked out. For this purpose, a representative committee, consisting of sevn ' members, is to be appointed by various organizations to take up the matter with the commission and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It is hard to see the intelligence or logic of (his backward step by the Health authorities. A dog on a leash is able to bite as often a3 he feels like it on the crowded sidewalks side-walks of the city. This point has already been raised and answered by tiie courts. To split hairs and discriminate between dogs to muzzle muz-zle Smith's sixteen pound dog and not muzzle Jones's fifteen pound pet. will open the door to endless t rouble and resentment. One uniform uni-form Ihw a muzzle for every dog on 1 1 1 r public streeis is the only safe a, id fane law. A f'-w figures will suffice to tell the whole story. In r14. before thr muzzling law went into effect, eight rases of human rabies, or hydrophobia, occurred In New York. ail resulting fatally. During Dur-ing the past iar, after the muzzling muz-zling law went into effect, there w?s only one case. In 1014, before the law went into effect, there were oases of rabies in flogs. In the past year, since thff muzziing law went into effcf, three have been only fifty-five. fifty-five. In ft!4, before the law went, into effect, there were 4,640 men, women and children bitten by clogs. Last y'ir. niter the lew went into effect, there were only In other words, the enforcement o" the dog muzzling law in N"w York for twelve, months, Imperfect as it was hera'iHe of lark of faejli lies on the. pari of the ,;irimri' I'ollc .''quad, Icr; brought about a iirop of X7'i per cent, in the number of canes of Surprising Results Already Accomplished in One Year's Trial of the Health Board's Law That urpnsmg : ' ?;JjK its Already 7::i ,v S ; complished in O-k;; ' M , Year's Trial . - -r:.:-f : ' rd s Law That , , - v';y r (Sflw- .sTV w-wrr-ttr W!r-rr-,ni! AtfL - "' ' ' . , . a V1. Vi 1 :-i .; a--55rf - -'-i.-; , .' k, V ; , - - : If ' 4 r - - - rv : j f ' ? , 'f a VM - - . r i , M human rabies, S2 2-3 per cent in the number of cases of rabies in dogs and about 17 per cent in the number of dog bites. These facts and figures are particularly parti-cularly significant in the light of the fact that the law was not very thoroughly enforced, although the Health Department did all it could do with its limited facilities and its other duties. For instance, only 15,000 of New York's 60,000 licensed dogs were properly muzzled, muz-zled, while only 45,136 of New York's stray doe population of 225,000 were seized and destroyed. If all the licensed dogs had been muzzled as the law requires and all the stray dogs had been picked up and destroyed as the law authorizes, author-izes, there can be little doubt that the results would have been even more remarkable. The careful census of New York's dog population revealed that there are approximately 225.000. Every one of them is apt to bite. Every one of them is apt to contract, rabies and communicate communi-cate it to the first child or adult it may attack. Every case of hydrophobia hydro-phobia results fatally. Medical science has not yet found a way to cope with the disease once it has set In, although the Pasteur treatment, treat-ment, if administered promptly enough, Is very successful In preventing pre-venting the onset, of the disease. Hydrophobia results in the moBt agonizing form of death to which human beings are subject. Some idea of the terrible menace of New York's 225,000 dogs may be gathered from the following considerations: con-siderations: If these dogs were all combined Into a single creature. It could straddle the New York City Hall. The giant canine would bo 122 feet long and 91 feet 6 inches high, and It would weigh 2,250 tons! His head, from tip of nose to back end of skull would measure SO feet 6 Inches. His upper tusk, or canine tooth, would be four feet long from base to tip, exclusive exclu-sive of root, and two fnet thick at. its base, and its lower tusk would he ?, feet C, Inrhes long and 2 feet, ft inches thiek. Its Jaw would be 18 feet 6 Inches long. Such an animal could swallow trolley car loaded with passengers at a single gulp! Despite these somewhat n 1 n r n i -ir g calculations, and I be obvious fact, that New York's :r,,i,M)0 flogs are infinitely more dangerous individually in-dividually and separately limn they would be if represented In a s'n:rlp animal, when the muzzlinghiw went Into effect, on Septetmher 15. 1014, It. was bitterly condemned. A lar;e number of dog-owners complained com-plained that It was cruel, u 'elrsa and unneeessary and an officious interferenee with personal liberty. lib-erty. Dr. S. H. floirtwaier. the Health t 'ornmfsHioner, v;;n severely n-i-sniled for the "arbil r-.iry" piu.lt ln lie v.:i!i taking and several f.' ' : v.rwe farricd to the eourt'i in :in effort !() b;tve le nw ( f M- ru'ef 1IH- i on -! it il i !on;j . "The law Is inhumane, uiincies- sary and useless," it was declared. "There is no such thing a3 rabies; it is better for a few human beings to contract such a disease if there is one than for all dogdom to suffer, and the muzzling-law won't stamp out rabies anyway." The official statistics of the Health Department, which, it may be added, have been thoroughly investigated in-vestigated and verified by the Dog Lovers' Protective Association, show without any question that ti.ere is such a thing as rabies, that dogs do contract it and communicate com-municate it to human beings and that a muzzling-law does operate . to stamp out the disease. Further, the Dog Lovers' Protective Association, Associa-tion, which strongly opposed the idea that it was necessary to muzzle muz-zle dogs In addition to leashing tlii.m. has now approved of a muzzle which will not only effectively prevent pre-vent 'a dog from niiing but which, it agrees. Is neither cruel nor Inhumane. In-humane. It appears, therefore, that despite de-spite the hue and cry which were raised against the Health Commissioner Com-missioner when the muzzllng-law was first enforced, rabies can be stamped out. by muzzling docs and dogs can be muzzled In a humane wa y. As a matter of fact, it waR fully demonstrated in England several years ago that the proper regulation regula-tion of dogn is all that is necessary neces-sary to stamp out this dreadful scourge. Before 1889, rabies had been prevalent in England for many years. In that year, there were 212 rases among flogs and thirty among human beings. A muzzling law then went into effect and in 1S02 there were only thirty-four cases In dogs and only six in human beings. The. law was then relaxed and almost immediately the old conditions were revived. In 1 KDG. there were 675 rases of rabies In dogs and twenty caRcs of human hydrophobia. Again the law was Invoked anil this time It was enforced more rigorously thnn ever, with the astonishing result, thai, since 1 SPR Great, Britain has not bad a single rase of hydrophobia hydro-phobia among human beings, nnd 1 002 not a single case of rabies In dogs. It was ber-niifie of this wonderful demonstration of the effect IvencRS ,r dog-muzzling, that Dr. Cold-water Cold-water was determined to enforce the law he succeeded in putting upon the. statute-books, despite the storm of protest, his crusade aroused among Ill-advised and misguided mis-guided Individuals. Mrs. Mary Knoblauch, wife of a New York banker and owner of a bulldog, was one of several who sought to hamper nnd Impede the Health Department's crusade to stamp out. hydrophobia. Hhe de-llberatetly de-llberatetly lnvi!d arrest by appearing ap-pearing on the public streets with her dog unmuzzlod and when Hhe wall arraigned In a police court, ! in. oblalned a writ, of habeas i (.-jiii t nnd had the matter taken .!,. tiio New York Hupreuio f 'inirt Supreme Court. Justice Lehman Cfiiyrllit, KitO, all the dogs in New York zvere combined into one single creature they -would make a gigantic animal that could straddle New York City Hall. This huge dog would be 112 feet long and 18 feet 6 inches high, and would weigh 2,250 tons. His head would measure more than 39 feet in length. The creature's huge jaws could crush and swallow a trolley car loaded with passengers. Dangerous as this mammoth beast would be, he is infinitely more dangerous divided up into 225,000 separate mouths, a bite from any one of which pair of jaws might , cause hydrophobia, the most terribly painful and --r - -l hopeless of deadly r!:cases. t ' ,v ? r I. - . . .. v. ' - ..;' ;' ..'' A , ; '.- ' W !..-- - ". ' H v : v I. . L1L. - UKffliJ'UVOOp i : r;" r. ". . ? ' r'' ' ' " 5 "' ' - f ' ''.',- 1 5'' '' ; " " J "Toy L'j,-;:." 'v ilh Short Koscs and the Special Fine Wire Muzzle That Makes Them Safe. promptly dismissed Ibe writ she had obtained, dcrid'tr; licit (be muzzling law was cnlirciy constitutional consti-tutional nnd a proper exercise of the finwer vhich the Hoard of Health Is given in connect Inn wlih lis duty to preserve the public health. Throughout. the city various other women drllod (be inlt'.icM'il ii s mill paraded the pcbl'c Mr.-i with nniiiii.b'd dogs. Il'.'.ui'es lor Ibe i-, iir ullow I be 1 l.-i.l'li .'M'.l.ld of Police of the Dcpiirtment of Health sii"inioii3C(l II,!. Ill to court for violating violat-ing the dog muzzling law, that 2.284 of thnn were lined, the unrs ag-urrejii ag-urrejii ing $:i.22:i. and 8S7 were foil i nl guilty but received only a suspended sentence. Duly 376 were discba rgrd. 'I hr war on stray dogs Is undoubtedly un-doubtedly rntlllrcl lo 11 largo share of the rrrilii for the results iiblalnrd ('Hiring I ho past twrlvo monl lift. by th'n Star Ciiiniinny. itl.'MI IJiiliiln lih;htH Hiimiu-vimI, ... A single creature j iddle New York . ' 1 r and 18 feet 6 . ' would measure 1 A iws could crush - - - - Dangerous as i ' ... . . ' -, . . r .-.- - , .- :'. 4 . .... '" " V . ' . t . . . , -t i'-:. -.. ) y $ " "r i- -. ' - - - ;.; v : ' - V I . 'I . . -: ' . j ...?''"' j ' . - r - . - ,. " A Dog Sho,ving a Style of Muzzle That Really Frotects the Public. This branch of the work is carried car-ried out by the Society lor the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Their dog-catchers succeeded In capturing and destroying .le.ns stray dogs, but nrcording to n care-ful care-ful estimate or those who nrc best Informed there are still an army cf 225,000 stray dogs at lurge In the city. In the past fifteen years, human brings in New York city have died a hideous death firm hydrophobia, because these dogs have been allowed to roe in the utrorls unmolested and licensed and house-dogs have been allowed on the public streets umvntrrdW and unmuzzled. The Hurerss or the first year of tho dog muzzling law will, u ia hoped, result in nn even more stringent enforcement of It In tho tulure. The outlook has been appreciably apprecia-bly brightened by the stand taken by the ling I.uwrs' I 'mi ret I vo soelatlon, ,v i-ouiiKinilivelv m-w l',,,, powerful oi-i-.:iiit -at ion of d,n- nwn-era nwn-era who have recentlv crnfrrrrd with lr. Cohlwatri- nM, n,r So .c.lrty for (ho rirvrntiun o Cnirlly to Animals on the subject of ile muzzling. Their cunibinrd efferts may result in a modification of the law In a way w hich w i',1 make It ' cejMah'e to even the most nlci!t 'lo-KM-tr and. at the same t still fully protect the public. One of the ch.octs of the IV 5 Lovers' Protective Association ' to nid In drvir-ing ss and mem? for economically and effectively riihllng the streets of stray 31:'1 unlicensed dous and cats-It cats-It Is rrnli.-cd (hat cats are vor' apt to contraci rubies from dcS and thus to communicate it 1(1 other nniumls or human beinps 'Iv deed, tbr sad case of I'ourtecli-yc.ir-old firnce rolhetnus. who 5 cumbrd to lndrophohui I a ft ?far after iccks of n-.oniring sufforlnf-was sufforlnf-was brought about by the scrstc of an inirctril cat U all the stray dous smi hem' less rals w rre itcstned t" necissitv for niurTlln.': ether cat and pvoporlv cavcl for niiiiht be Irss pronounced. t'uon-.b it 1 ,-.,uier:illv toil lha lonlimu'd satelv would ft'11 ( maud (be I'vepel- 1 -cgulath,n tbcar animais in cniRested ciln- |