Interesting to Dogs and Their Fanciers

The late Legislature performed an act of benevolence when they passed the dog taxing law, for if properly enforced it will be the means of taking a large number of those quadrupeds of ‘elegant leisure’ out of their earthly misery. Every owner of a canine is required to register his dog with the township clerk on or before the 15th of May in each year, and to pay one dollar tax for a male dog, or three dollars for a female dog; and he must also put a collar of leather of brass around the dog’s neck, with the date and number of the register engraved thereon. A failure to comply with these provisions renders a person liable to five dollars fine, and any one who kills or steals a registered dog is liable to not exceeding fifty dollars fine. – All unregistered dogs are to be slain without judge or jury. The money received from the said tax goes to the school fund.

– Published in the Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862, p. 1