One hundred years ago
WE CALL attention to a letter pub- lished in another column on the muz- zling of dogs, and the mischief to which it leads where the muzzles are provided, as they are in nine cases out of ten, by people who are either too careless or too poor to purchase anything but the cheapest form of muzzle. No doubt both rabies and hydrophobia are dread- ful diseases, but it is by no means certain that rabies is at all worse (for the dog) than other fatal diseases which may be caused or greatly exasperated by muzzling; and even hydrophobia, if as rare as it has always been in England even at the worst of times, is an evil which might easily be outweighed by a very great increase in the number of other canine diseases and the consequ- ences to which they would lead. As Mr Courtenay says, no one can easily gauge the misery and the mischief which the ordinary muzzling, as it is carried out by the thoughtless people, causes. The aggravation of canine chest and throat diseases, the starvation, the thirst, and the general disturbance of the dog's system, would far outweigh the mischief even of a few cases of rabies promptly dealt with by the pistol or the rifle.
The Spectator, 13 July 1889
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