CRUELTY TO DOGS.
[To Inc EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR.—Mr. Owen Rutter performs good service in writing to you about the constant chaining of dogs in Suffolk. My own experi- ence is 'that particular areas in the country are much worse than others. For instance, in North Wales dogs are seldom
chained, while in some rural parts of Surrey and Middlesex it is the most common thing to find dogs chained to kennels on farms and in cottage gardens. Mr. Butter quotes an extreme case of a dog being chained for three years, but a conviction was obtained recently at the Tower Bridge Police Court, at the instance of the National Canine Defence League, which shows that chaining, even for two or three days, without liberation for exercise, is illegal. Mr. Waddy, the stipendiary magistrate, said that "it was just as much cruelty to keep a dog on a chain for an excessive length of time as it was to over- heat it." The secret of the matter is that many people will not take the trouble to train their dogs properly. A chained dog naturally likes to make the most of any freedom he may obtain, and does not look forward with pleasure to a resump- tion of his imprisonment, hence his propensity to wander far
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