Dog-Carts.
These were, and still are, in the country, connected with many an act of atrocious cruelty. We do not object to the dog as a beast of draught. He is so in the northern regions, and he is as happy as any other animal in those cold and inhospitable countries. He is so in Holland, and he is as comfortable there as any other beast that wears the collar. He is not so in Newfoundland: there he is shamefully treated. It is to the abuse of the thing, the poor and half-starved condition of the animal, the scandalous weight that he is made to draw, and the infamous usage to which he is exposed, that we object. We would put him precisely on the same footing with the horse, and then we should be able, perhaps, to afford him, not all the protection we could wish, but nearly as much as we have obtained for the horse. We would have every cart licensed, not for the sake of adding to the revenue, but of getting at the owner; and therefore the taxing need not be any great sum. We would have the cart licensed for the carrying of goods only; or a separate license taken out if it carried or drew a human being.
It is here that the cruelty principally exists. Before the dog-carts were put down in the metropolis, we then saw a man and a woman in one of these carts, drawn by a single dog, and going at full trot. Every passenger execrated them, and the trot was increased to a gallop, in order more speedily to escape the just reproaches that proceeded from every mouth. We would have the name and address of the owner, and the number of the cart, painted on some conspicuous part of the vehicle, and in letters and figures as large as on the common carts. Every passenger who witnessed any flagrant act of cruelty would then be enabled to take the number of the cart, and summon the owner; and the police should have the same power of interference which they have with regard to other vehicles.
After a plan like this had been working a little while, the nuisance would be materially abated; and, indeed, the consciousness of the ease with which the offender might be summoned, would go far to get rid of it.
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