Evening Star Newspaper, July 14, 1935, Page 59

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JULY 14 1935—PART FOUR. F—3 % LOST OR STRAYED, THE WAIF OF DOGDOM GETS A -HOME By Randolph Roberts. GREATLY excited Washing- ton matron, living in the Northwest section of the city, picked up her telephone not 80 long ago and said to the operator: “Get me the District Pound and make it snapp; Within a couple of seconds a voice at the other end of the wire said: “Good morning This is W. R. Smith, poundmaster. What can I do for you?” “Plenty. Please rush one of your men over here immediately. A dog Just bit my little girl. We captured him. Something ought to be done right away.” “Very well, madam. I'll be at your home within 10 minutes and look into this myself.” True to his word, Mr. Smith hopped into his official bow-wow wagon and sped to the scene of the crime. Imagine his astonishment when the canine criminal turned out to be a puppy only about a month old and so tiny that actually, when placed on the palm of the hand, there was plenty of room to spare. DESPI’I‘E this weird situation, Mr. Smith did his duty to the letter of the l]aw. He questioned the mother and learned these facts: That the little girl was sitting on her porch when all at once the wee pup passed by the house. He was such a cute- looking doggie—a lovely yellowish tan with creamy white breast and the most wistful eyes imaginable—that she couldn't resist the impulse to pet him. Whereupon he bit her hand. Of course a physician was consulted, and, to the great relief of mother and dad, said there was no danger of rabies. Straightway Mr. Smith realized that really his new charge was just & waif—more to be pitied than pun- ished. Nevertheless he escorted “Half- Pint,” as he nicknamed him, down to the pound for the regulation 10 days’ observation period. But it didn't take that long to discover why the pup had bit the girl. Actually it was all but starving. However, sympathetic treat- ment and lots of rich milk—a quart 8 day—accomplished wonders. So His the man says to you: “Can I be of service? Smith, poundmaster.” You state your business. Mr. Smith | opens the screen door, offers you a | chair beside his desk and you're in a dog pound, maybe for the first time in your life! Evidently the pound- master senses this fact. For about 15 minutes you don’t need to ask a | single question. This fellow’s a verita- | ble walking encyclopedia on the sub- | Jject of dogs. First of all, he points out that he’s | been in charge of the pound for 15 years. Previously, for a like period |he was in the inspection service, Health Department, following three years on the Washington police force. | Born on a farm in Loudoun County, | Va., close to Leesburg, Mr. Smith first became interested in dogs when his | dad started breeding fox hounds on | a large scale, But that's another | story. Certainly the poundmaster is unique in at least one important respect. He's the only man in Washington, so far | | as is known, vested with police au- | | thority as a direct result of a special | act of Congress. None other than | Senator Royal S. Copeland achieved | this for Mr. Smith on April 30, 1930, | the immediate occasion being a couple of unwarranted attacks on the pound- | master. | Right after telling you this Mr. | Smith once more is called to the phone, thereby giving you a chance to look around a bit more thoroughly. Two entire walls are covered with snapshots, commercial pictures, ar- ]‘tsts‘ drawings and news clippings of | every kind of dog known to man. | You try to count them all, but get a phone conversation finished, | Iam W. R. | | trifie discouraged after reaching 305.! manner of questions, or just looking. ! standard of efficiency. Last year 7,352 ‘Two small shelves on opposite sides of the room hold two stuffed dogs. One of these, a splendid white spitz, is wearing a muzzle now regarded as | legal, of the so-called baskel type, | while the other, a handsome black police dog, wears the one-strap muzzle, which is neither effective nor legal | within the meaning of the law. ALL this points to what on the face of it looks like a somewhat strange situation. Here's a man, pre- sumably charged with sending stray | dogs on a quick trip to puppy heaven, who really loves the animals. So much so, you later learn, that at home he has a complete set of books on his favorite subject. And on his desk you now see a snapshot showing Mr. Smith walking along the Wild- wood, N. J., Boardwalk with a Great Dane in tow. Yes, even on a vaca- | tion this surprising chap has to have a canine friend on hand. When the poundmaster's through | phoning you inquire: “What's the | mad dog situation in the District today? Mr. Smith reaches into a | desk drawer, takes out a well-thumbed little booklet and you read some fig- ures showing that Washington has been virtually free of the rabies since 1931. Ever since 1920, when there were 79 cases, there has been a steady decline in the number of persons bit- ten by rabid dogs. In 1921 the number dropped to 58; in 1922 to 51; there was a single case in 1934 and none so far this year. Revenues from dogs—including N- cense fees and pound fees from the | sale of canines—have gone steadily | upward since 1920. The figure in that year was over $16.000. Last fiscal year—July, 1933, to July, 1934—the revenue was almost exactly three times this amount. | Is the poundmaster permitted to use | this money for purposes of expansion | or improvement? Not a single penny. | Everything earned at the pound goes | into the coffers of the Federal| Treasury. Well, then, how does the pound meet expenses? Congress annually ap- propriates a certain sum for the Health Department, of which the District au- ditor apportions about $11,000 a year | for the pound. | Mr. Smith has a surprisingly small staff. Besides himself, there are only | five others on the job—colored labor- | ers. You soon decide that a staff double the present size ought to be | employed. For all day long people are | streaming in and out, making com- | plaints, purchasing dogs, asking all | establishment is laid out very simply: | Lower, center: “Aw, please go away and let us sleep.” If these pound pups could talk, probably they'd say something like this to The Star’s candid cameraman. Top, center: Waiting for their master’s voice. The dog, man’s best and oldest friend among the animals, is a native American, a fact pretty generally accepted. Upper right: A familiar scene at the pound. Pound- master W. R. Smith muzzling one of his foundlings. Upper, left: Here's one that almost got away! Often it takes two men to net a particuiarly frisky canine. —Star Staft Photos. And every few seconds the phone rings. | animals were handled at the pound. | Every morning around 8:30, Mr. | Last month 644 were handled. How Smith says, he jumps into his dilapi- | many of these are made into useful | dated bow wow wagon (at least five members of dog society? | ducts you on a brief tour of all these | ] sections. When you enter the main | interfere with its course. All the treat- | remedy devised by | kennels years old) and patrols one or more sections of the city. The average mileage is about 50 miles a day. Com- | plaints are looked into and all waifs gathered in with the aid of enormous nets. Around about 2 o'clock the canine catchers return to the pound. The rest of the day is occupied with clerical and inspection work and the value—old, vicious or diseased.” care of sick animals. At the time of your visit there are Honestly, it’s little short of amazing | 80 animals in the pound. Today, the that with such fifth-rate equipment | poundmaster says, the police dog pre- | and inadequate personnel Mr. Smith 1s ; dominates among the “transients,” and | able to maintain his consistently high ‘ next 1n order are the mixed breeds, like NCE more Mr. Smith whips out| his wee record books and peers intently therein: “Our sale of dogs has averaged about 45 per cent of the total number handled. We've had to destroy only 35 per cent, and these in every instance were animals of no | | However, practically every known kind has found a temporary residence here some time or another. Really, Mr. Smith explains, his “The present structural arrange- ment, built some 20 years ago, is com- posed of two main wings, north and south, the whole thing inclosed by brick walls with connecting, open-air sheds between each wing. “My office is in the south wing, or main building, which also contains a boiler room and 30 pens for healthy dogs. The connecting sheds are used to house a number of open-air ken- nels. The north wing contains 14 ken- nels where biting dogs are kept under observation for 10 days.” And now the poundmaster con- for healthy dogs. located | across the court from his office, your nose knows that youre in a canine| apartment house. However, every-| thing’s spick and span, for, as Mr. Smith tekes pains to explain, all pens ' | are inspected daily with the utmost | thoroughness. In these main kennels you see about | 30 animals—police, collies, shepherds, terriers and just plain “mutts.” Each pen, inclosed by strong wire screening, | has a number painted on it and room for five to seven average sized dogs. | Right now pen 15 contains only four canines, all less than a year old. | They are: A chow with really beau- tiful maroon-colored fur, a handsome | Belgian shepherd with the character-| istic black-and-white markings on chest and back and tan on legs and | around the mouth, a frisky Airedale | with heavy brown hair and a black fellow of mixed breed, possibly a bird | and hound. | En route to the distemper kennels | Mr. Smith offers an exceedeingly | learned dissertation on the well-| known ailment. He exrlains: “Distemper 15 a contagious, catarrh- al fever that is a common and serious disease among dogs. It is thought the | germs float through the air and are inhaled. Pure-bred puppies, quite a number of fine adults and just plain ‘mutts,’ are subject to it on about an equal numerical basis. Fortunately one attack seems to give immunity to future attacks. “The disease is brought on with a | chill that may last an hour or more. | It it followed by a high fever. In some cases there are nervous symp- toms shown by jerking of the head and twitching of the muscles. Dis- temper runs its course in 10 to 30 ment should be directed toward mak- ing the sufferer comfortable and keep- ing up its strength so that it may re- sist the disease.” | LTOGETHER at the pound there are three distemper pens located on the outside of a small court un- derneath a small shed where there’s | plenty of sunlight and fresh air. Only four young sufferers, each & year old or less, are on hand right now and each has his own separate pen. | Not a one, to your inexperienced eve, gives definite indication of ill- ness. But Mr. Smith soon sets vou right on this point. “See that thor- oughbred police pup in the extreme left kennel?” he says. “Watch his right leg.” Sure enough, every couple | of seconds it starts to twitch. All the members of this “emergency | ward” look like valuable house pets. | They include a wee jog on the order of a toy collie, mostly white with tan markings; a yellow and white “hound” of doubtful heritage, ana a well-bred | collie. Only a couple of fect away, in the same outside court, are the three ken- nels set aside for treatment of mangy dogs. You are surprised to learn thaf all three of the present inmates are theroughbreds. First to catch your eye is a really valuable red chow only about eight weeks cld and picked up somewhere in Anacostia. On his tiny right shoulder is a bad case of the disease. You feel mighty sorry for the handsome iittle brute. But you needn’t. Mr. Smith chuckles: “He'll be all right before I get through with him.” And this boast turns out to be cor- rect, you discover a few days later, thanks to the potent effect on the collies, Airedales, Scotties and bulls.| days. There is no medicine that will | puppy of a new mange cure, secret 1THOSE WERE THE HAPPY DAYS— “CornerStore Memories” —By Dick Mansfield that the little rascal became extreme- | ly well behaved; an owner was found for him—and all was well This anecdote is one of the pound- master’s favorites. Just why, you can- not, of course, understand unless you are privileged to meet him. And, by the way. here's a friendly suggestion: If you claim to be a real lover of animals why don’t you take a little time off from your regular routine some fine day and visit the pound? | Honestly, if you're willing to browse around there for a couple of hours you'll positively be astonished. The chances are that you will come away with the convictior that if this is the end of the road, the official start to canine heaven, then certain- ly it doesn't look the part. For all practical purposes the pound is an orphan asylum, a reformatory and a hospital rolled into one. Its location is a scant five minutes by motor from the heart of the city— at South Capitol and I streets south- west. On a corner lot the building, set up of red brick, completely walled in, occupies about half of a city square of ground. You notice a small door on I street, so you open it. Now you're inside a rather ancient-appear- ing room, which obviously serves as an office. It is barely large enough to house two small desks, a type- writer and two “stuffed” or mounted dogs. 'TRICTLY speaking, you're still outside the office proper. Facing you is an enormous, silver-colored screen door. It contains this sign: “Sale hours of dogs—8:30 to 9 am. and 2 to 4 pm. Saturdays—11:30 a.m. to 12:30. Dogs not sold on Sundays or holidays. Sale papers executed on the premises, without fee, by the poundmaster. All sales are final. No refunds.” Suddenly you notice that a man is sitting at one of the desks behind the screen. He gets up to answer the phone and you get a good look at him. He is a tiny chap, barely over five feet tall, slightly built, wears glasses, has sparse gray hair and an ‘xneedinxly friendly voice, TMES) TO MARSHALL A Sieamees S5 TEMEMBER TAIS ONE WAIT FOR “THE TENTH ANNUAL EXCORSION OF “THED:Co IUOCERYMEN fiLl_, MACALESTER QOEEN. ———— A QUARTER\ TeLLyove > MOYHER (D051 @GOT IN A FANCY Cilece OF HOME DRESSEY BEEF, \_FROM CHARLIE KELS . CecK-0-PoTA— THE/TOES, “WO CENTS \éon:r/»( O’MILK, /}S OOND O’ ARBUCKL COFFEE AND SOME QLUE-HEN QACZLO? MAT < 4 4 il IGNS O° T’ B30T or (H OYVERBAC ReEMeEMBER ™ NOBOOY \ CouLD READ “THE NOTATIONS YOUD GET A STICK O’CAND END OF EACH MONTYH WHEN 00R MOTHER ES, M&. K_ il AY EVEN— 0 THE GROCER AND L 7 A HORSE CAKE AT “THE =2 TpTaD, ETTLED O W& I“EAT'/\O_ o NEW CACK ST (N r aj NANTicorizs ¥ 35 ALKING ABO i RRTICOL A o 90 CouLoNT gey, 2 PLike COME hallll ONE o OLD F Y To ASHION STorEs, RSE- $\_ "é".‘,s,’,‘“s L WART DO YOU REMEMBE v 7 %r\//:\ oy & ACRoOSS “THOSE CHEST®R = > ONSWER 70 LAST WEEK, (A VESTION, | AME. —THE BALL CLUL ONSWER, HE POTOMACS,ORGANIZ- { EO-185 : \ NEXT WEE! WHAT EAMOLS 2 ERST BASE_ _} B IN WASHINGION. \TONE HAS § OVER 25 Y Y THE METROPOLITAN 'f&fiss r-'o'é YRS, the poundkeeper himse! Also on hand is ar nified French aristocrat with shaggy white hair of blood Ironically enough, he was brought to the pound by a family that couldn’t afford to hire a veterinarian The third member of the mange g collie about Mr, ceedingly dig- poodle—a nose-tilted the Smith’s alert sleu section of the distric is of the loveliest a pastel sable blending a creamy white “But what do you feed all these dogs?” you ask Mr. Smith. “There's our staple food,” he re- plies, pointing to two stoves loca on the edge of the court and cor ing two pans d with a brown substance. “Our charges are fed re ularly twice a day with cut-up I and corn meal cooked to a h: brown.” And now for your biggest thrill of the entire visit! A trip through the \dog “house of correction,” offici: known as the kennels for biting dogs Dogs are held here, in the so-called lower building, under observation for 10 days. Mr. Smith explains: | “There are 13 dogs here now an each one has bitten a human bein; Of this number seven were turned by persons who were snapped at, by their friends or relatives, while the others were voluntarily handed ove: to us by their owners.” Practically all these canine “crim- inals” are less than 2 years old. Mos of them are well bred and they rep- | resent outstanding varieties. _Police | dogs predominate, there being five, al told. Others are: A Great Dane, & spitz, a handsome sheep dog with wooly brown fur, a mixed terrier anc a combination of a brindle and 2 | white English bull that actually it striped almost like a giraffe. “What's worse than a mad dog?* Mr. Smith suddenly asks you. You don't know the answer, so the poundmaster supplies it: “A mad cat. Without doubt this can be the meanest of all animals Both - its claws and teeth can be utilized as formidable weapons whereas a dog can use only its teeth.” In this connection Mr. Smith in. forms you of a fact the average per- |son most assuredly doesn't know | about—that the dog pound maintai | cattery kennels. There are three of | them ready for occupancy, althougk empty at this particular time. This pup's fur imaginable— gradually into d YOUR visit to the pound's biting dog section, plus a half hour’s chat with Poundmaster Smith, con- | vinces you that here, indeed, is s strange situation: At present the stray dog is an infrequent source o! dog bites! The chief offender is tht | animal whose careless owner allow: | him to be at large on streets or othe: public places without being properly muzzled as provided by law. Even though the prevalence of rabies infection in Washington hai been reduced to a minimum during the past couple of years, every nev case of dog bite naturally gives rist to a great deal of apprehension. Thi is particularly true when the anima cannot be traced. It may be though that there should be no trouble i1 tracing a biting dog, especially sinc: almost all such are licensed. Experience shows, however, tha this often presents considerable dif ficulties — in fact, that no informa tion whatsoever can be obtained a to the condition or whereabouts a the offending animal. Under thest | circumstances a large number o victims of dog bites must submit the ordeal of thorough cauterizatior of the wound, followed by a course o immunization with anti-rabies vac cine. Even then there remains th anxiety as to the adequacy of thes preventive measures. Certainly one fact, at least, is ob vious enough: The ownership of 1 dog carries with it the definite re sponsibility to keep the animal fron biting any person, especially whil the dog is in the street or any othe public place. Continued disregard o the rights of the non-dog-ownin public may compel the Health De partment to take drastic action. ere are almost innumerable silk ntinued on Page 4, Column [