Show tattoo on dog s leg simplifies identification LOS IOS ANGELES at least ne artaches a year will be saved dog lovers when ing tattooing tato a dogs license number permanently on its leg becomes a national practice the dog tattooing idea first was introduced in the K 9 corps for positive identification of the canine rookies it was first used on a civilian basis by H graham conar internationally known horseman a and nd do dog authority in 1948 1946 in a private dog club he be organized in los angeles the he idea received additional impetus when the national dog record bureau a nonprofit corporation was started with conar as president and james schermerhorn jr former detroit newspaperman as vice president since its inception the idea has received wide acclaim and acceptance from law enforcement agencies and anti cruelty societies all over the nation conar claims according to alexander tilley general manager of the los angeles and southern california humane society identa coding will have wider applications than tattooing of pedigreed and valuable pets do dogs s are highly prized many a mutt is so highly prized by a family they would not consent tp sell it for all the tea in china yet it a week is the longest such a mutt will live in a pound after that if unclaimed it is gassed to make room for more hapless little waifs waife out of 20 dogs we get at the shelter tilley says only one is caught with a license tag out of 19 dogs three may be claimed by owners out of the 16 iema remaining ining another four may find fiew dew owners the remaining 12 are destroyed multiply this number by the number of deities hamlets and counties and you get an appalling death toll tilley estimates that dogs bare are destroyed yearly in new york I 1 and in los angeles alone he thinks that is a conservative figure for the number of unfortunate pets which die in the gas chamber every year tags are missing another argument in favor of dog tattooing tilley says are dog owners themselves in the 71 years of our ur work he says most of them simply would not be educated to keeping the dogs license tag on him till all the time and usually it is the time when the license tag is off that the pet laet gets lost during the war when the tags were made of soybean plastic the dogs used to eat their tags like biscuits and when caught without identification were just so much loser closer to the gas chamber to prevent dog records from being destroyed in a fire or any other catastrophe the master micro almed files are kept in a hank vault in los angeles and new york at the moment the organization is administered from los angeles for the western region from kansas city for the central central region and from new york for the eastern region other offices are being I 1 licensed daily and there is even talk of the he organization going international within a year with offices in all principal cities of the world |