".NO RECEIVER, NO THIEF."
IN the Contemporary Review some months ago there was an article by Mr. C. R. Johns, Secretary of the Canine Defence League, upon the methods of dog-stealers. From it we may learn how an aniseed-oil track, beginning at the gate of its home, may beguile a coveted dog into a street where its captor awaits it ; how the powder of dried, baked liver, sprinkled in the " turn-up " of a thief's trousers, will induce a victim to follow those trousers until at some safe moment it can be pounced upon, unobserved; together with much other informa- tion, mostly new—and very disquieting—to honest readers. The thieves, on the whole, seem to be more or Ices nomadic and scattered vagabonds, people not easy to be caught or suppressed by the law.
But there is another and more settled branch of the industry. As a " police axiom " quoted by Mr. Johns observes : " No receiver, no thief " ; and the most valuable of his revelations are concerned not with the theft of dogs but with the traffic in them after they have been stolen. The details given are very similar to those of 'which one reads -in reports of the 'so-called white slave " traffic. In 'both trades it in a common practice
to. remove the- vendible-commodity to aadiabance,.aud_ even out of the country: "-The thieves in the provinces. have ' London agents' who receive and sell the dogs-in their •shops. or in the open-air markets. London thieves, again, have confederates in the large provincial towns, and there is well known to be a very extensive exchange of dogs between these people." Moreover,, the dealer who deliberately buys stolen animals—and probably finds his moat profitable " line " in doing so—" usually carries on a bond-fide, business in buying and selling and occasionally breeding- doge:" Now the dealer, if his trade is to become extensive, must, have- a settled place, and will probably even. desire. to advertise, hiewares. Indeed, the columns of " animal papers." are full of advertisements, some, ma doubt, from; people, carrying on a legitimate business, others, to say the least, sus- picious. I.cull the following specimens.from.a. recent, issue of a, widely circulated. paper:—
"Wanted, Dogs and Puppies from all parts."
" Wanted, Dogs and Puppies ; I buy anything alive and send. cash fast."
" Wanted, 100-good-bred Dogs of 'all breeds ; also oross-bred. Dogs or Bitches ; cheap for cash and no waiting ; money ready."
" Puppies of all kinds wanted ; bring for spot cash or- send by rail ; write first."
The persons who insert-such advertisements. are nob, casual lodgers by the day or week in some single room in a. shim. They can be.traced, inspected, and supervised ; and if instead of being dealers in animals they were pawnbrokers, they would be obliged; to take out a licence and would receive weekly from the police a list of missing articles. Characteristically the law has created safeguards much earlier for our stolen silver than for our stolen four-footed friends ; but the omission can be. remedied. Honest dealers, no- doubt, would welcome a system, that. helped to drive the dishonest out of their ranks ;, while. dog-owners, who contribute in, the form. of licences: many thousands a year to the National Exchequer, have surely some claim to effectual protection in return.
Nor is the receiving of stolen goods the only fault that may be committed by a dealer in animals. It is not right that any person,,however ignorant, callous, or cruel, should be allowed to deal at will with living creatures—to blind birds, to dock or crop degs,,to doctor them according to any current superstition, to keep them in. insanitary conditions, confined to small cages, deprived of air or exercise, and to sell them for; vivisection or for the horrors of stage-training. The silverteapot or the pearl necklace, after all, feel-no pain in being 'melted down orunstrung and distributed; but the wares of the dog thief are capable not only of physical but of mental suffering—subject to cruel pangs. at, separation from their friends and to apprehensions which: they cannot. explain. What the owner feels whose dog die-. appears some of us know by experience, but who can fathom the sufferings, of the dog suddenly banished from. all. the familiar voices and places, roughly treated by strangers, and fOreed out of-all the habits that make up. his daily life ?
All this distress of man and beast has, in the last resort, one root :. the illicit dealer's desire for profit. Him, rather than the minor criminal, who is his indirect tool, the. law must touch if the horrid traffic is to be checked, and if the surroundings and treatment of dogs kept for sale, whether honestly acquired or
not, are-to be brought:up to a proper level. CuaEmariaBaACL
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