"Let Us Have A Dog Law"

[yeoman]

American Citizen {Canton, MS}, November 30, 1861, p.2, c.5

Let Us Have a Dog Law

Dogs and Sheep.- The following (says the Albany, Ga. Patriot) corresponds so well with our views, that we cheerfully give it a place in our columns. In this section of the State we have as fine sheep-walks as can be found anywhere, but the farmers dare not attempt to raise a flock, for fear of losing them by a pack of worthless dogs. We heard a few days since of a farmer who had succeeded in raising a flock of sheep, numbering over one hundred. In two nights, all but thirty were destroyed by dogs. Such is generally the case throughout this section.
We saw a family a short time since who begged their bread for support. They numbered nine whites and five dogs, making fourteen, all told. We asked the old man of the house, why he kept such a pack of poor dogs about him. His reply was, "they were good for coons." At that moment the idea struck us that they were "good for sheep." Then again we say, that in the main we endorse the following article on dogs:

Editors of Southern Confederacy:

Dear Sirs: The time has arrived when the raising of vast numbers of sheep is a matter of great importance to us. Can it be done? It can, provided our Legislature will give the necessary protection; and surely under the present exigencies of our situation, it will. That protection should be the passing of a stringent dog law, to tax every person five dollars for every dog kept over one, and to make each man pay at least three dollars for every sheep killed by his dog, or dogs, if not previously killed by the owner or others, to be condemned by said court and killed forthwith.
The law would relieve our country of multitudes of these worthless animals, and save all that it takes to raise and keep them. Many families who are scarcely able to keep a supply of bread for their children, keep from two to four dogs. In consequence of the high price of wool. they have to be clad in cotton during the winter season, thereby subjecting them to much suffering from cold, and causing many to be burned to death. The mountains of Northern, the fields of Middle, and the pine lands of Southern Georgia, could soon be well stocked with tables of fine mutton, and soon we could make wool one of our exports, were it not for the great numbers of worthless sheep-killing dogs. I therefore respectfully solicit the citizens throughout Georgia to send up large petitions to our next Legislature, asking the passage of such a law for our protection.

Chattanooga.
P.S. Editors who are in favor of this please copy.

We cheerfully give place to the foregoing, and hope something will be done to rid the country of dogs. Besides their sheep-killing habits, they are the most worthless creatures on earth and do no good commensurate with their expense. Why people will foolishly throw away their hard earnings by feeding a snarling cur, a yelping hound, or a pet poodle, we cannot understand. We know some families who are poor and are actually in want of the prime necessities of life, yet keep dogs, and feed them enough to supply many of those prime necessities, while the dogs do not benefit them to the amount of one cent. We know rich families who keep large Newfoundlands and poodles for pets, and feed them with the dainties of the land-enough to supply food for some poor children near by who are suffering for something to eat-the dogs meanwhile not worth a cent to their owners or for any one else.
The bread and meat, milk and butter that is fed to dogs, and the sheep that they kill within the Confederate States, would bountifully feed our whole army and pay for its transportation to them, and supply families that are left to be cared for by us, while not a particle of good is rendered by them to their owners in return for all this waste. This ought not to be so, and we hope a stop will be put to it..-Southern Confederacy.

The necessity of sheep-raising is not less pressing in Mississippi than in Georgia, and we presume wool-growing is not less profitable here than there. We think our Legislature now in session should therefore do something for the protection of sheep by passing a law taxing dogs heavily. Our town, our county, our State, are full of "mongrels, puppies, whelps and hounds, and curs of low degree" that should be killed off. It is no uncommon thing to see-in poor families especially-as many dogs as there are persons, and the "old folks" will divide their last crust with their worthless curs, even at the expense of their children's stomachs. We hope the matter will be taken into consideration by our Legislature.
Let everything that destroys but produces nothing be killed off.

This may be found with this link

Thanks to Vicki Betts for the transcriptions.

[yeoman]

Re: "Let Us Have A Dog Law"

These thoughts on "dogs" from a couple more newspapers.

Southern Field and Fireside [Augusta, Ga.], May 26, 1860, p.6,c.2.

Dogs vs Sheep.

A correspondent who resides in Clay County Ga., says that he has been many years trying to raise a flock of sheep, but "the dogs and mean people are so savage on them" he is about to turn over what he has left to a man to keep on shares. He has had as many as seven hundred head some years, and one hundred and fifty killed in twelve months. He now wishes to purchase a few good Cotswold sheep; and we are unable to tell him where they can be had. It is hardly creditable to the intelligence of the "Empire State of the South," that it does so much to prevent the increase of sheep by allowing every man, whether "mean" or not, to keep as many half-tamed and half-starved wolves as he pleases, without any tax whatever. As wolves and dogs breed together perfectly, all naturalists now agree in regarding them as only varieties of one species; so that dogs are tame wolves, and often wolves made more vicious by leaving the vices, cunning and crimes of their biped masters. The editor has had to sell his flock of sheep because tame wolves destroyed them in the day time when feeding in their pastures. A reasonable tax on dogs to cover loses of this kind, would soon remedy the evil here as it did in the State of New York.
http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/southe...d_fireside.htm

Semi-Weekly Raleigh Register, August 28, 1861. p.3, c.2

The Value of Cotton.

The value of cotton is likely to be appreciated in the South this winter, in consequence of the war. North Carolina would be one of the best sheep raising countries in the world, were it not for useless dogs that destroy the flocks.
Let the Legislature, now in session, enact a law to exterminate the great excess of the canine race in the State, by heavy taxes, or otherwise.
A curious writer has entered into calculation that the number of dogs in the Confederate States costs twenty million dollars a year to feed them.
Iredell (NC) Express
The above is a most excellent suggestions, and we hope the Legislature will put a tax on dogs, especially Pointers, Setters, Hounds and Curs, that will so diminish the number as to enable the Farmers of the State to raise Sheep. there are many portions of the State admirably adapted to the raising of Sheep, and it is a crying sin and shame, that a number of mischievous dogs should prevent the production of an adequate supply of an article so essential to human comfort as wool. Let the Legislature then at once take steps to rid the State of these canine pests.
http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/Raleigh%201861.htm

Thanks to Vicki Betts for the above compiled work.

[Hank Trent]

Re: "Let Us Have A Dog Law"

This was apparently a nationwide problem. I ran across the same thing in Ohio, and here's an article from the USDA report for 1863 on dog laws and problems across the northern states.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com