A Market for the Dog Pounds of Large Cities Will be Utilized by the Alaskan Miner-Chicago’s Contribution.
[Copyright, 1837.]
L. H. Lewis, a lawyer of Seattle, has recently formed what he calls the Seattle Yukon Dog company, whose agents will travel through the states, purchasing by wholesale the lost, strayed or stolen animals that are languishing in the dog pounds. Lawyer Lewis thinks he sees a fortune in the sale of these dogs, good, bad and indifferent, to the miners of the Klondike, to be trained for use in drawing sledges.
The first carload of 200 dogs was forwarded by one of these agents from Chicago to Seattle on the 30th of October last. They were shipped in a three- decker car with an experienced keeper in charge, and arrived in fairly good condition.
The dogs shipped were of various breeds, the majority of them crossbred. The prevailing strain in this carload was setter, shepherd and collie, with a sprinklings of some dogs having some Newfoundland blood. The dogs were selected with reference to their fitness for service in the Yukon regions, the majority having long, warm hair, and no dog being accepted that was not toughfooted, a good traveler, and of an intelligent breed. Their weights ran from 50 to 80 pounds, and they were all of stocky build, it being the intention to avoid both exclusively light and heavy animals.
The agent who selected this livestock made the dog pound his headquarters for three weeks; and the fact that he was paying prices somewhat higher than those usually quoted to dog pound keepers may account for the remarkably large number of dogs which disappeared from Chicago homes during that period, and failed to return in spite of offers of reward. Certain it is that this dog pound realized an unexpectedly large number of high-class animals.
Last year, when no one had realized what treasure was going to waste in the dog pound, the only animals for sale were the Eskimo dogs, and the dealers would not sell the poorest specimens for less than ten dollars each. Now Eskimo dogs are valued very little above the shaggy-haired pets whose loss is being mourned by so many families throughout the states. The dog pounds of the country will furnish an inexhaustible supply of these. It is probable that they will be shipped by the thousand, and from Maine to California the drag nets of the dog catchers will be actively engaged in swelling the company’s stock in trade. The demand is expected to be enormous. Agents will be stationed in Alaska and will ship dogs by the hundred for sale direct to the miners there.
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