Dogcatcher is scourge of mutts lacking tags

NOV. 26, 1910

Edmonton was overrun with stray dogs in the early 1900s, leading the city’s dogcatcher to kill and cremate 2,400 untagged dogs in two years, a 1910 Journal story said.

T. Smith had been hired two years earlier as dogcatcher and pound keeper because Edmonton was home to more stray dogs than any other city in the West.

“Every time the sun sets in the golden west, one little dog or more in Edmonton goes to the happy hunting grounds according to the records kept by Mr. T. Smith, official dogcatcher and poundkeeper,” the story began. “They go by the incinerator route, and their passing isn’t accompanied by any ceremonial, nor is it necessary for them to commit any special crime, apart from running at large on the city streets without a tag on their necks.”

“If the owner doesn’t appear, away he goes to the incinerator.”

When asked what methods he used to catch dogs, Smith said he had a secret system of his own to persuade stray canines to follow him. “We never use a net.”

The dogcatcher was paid 25 cents for every dog he disposed of. “The dog, when caught, is shot before being thrust into the mouth of the incinerator.”

Asked if the dogs could be disposed of at a profit without killing them, Smith replied, “It wouldn’t pay me to skin them. All the dealers will pay for dog skins is about 25 cents apiece, and that consideration isn’t worth while.”

Smith added that the possibilities of dogs caught by city officials ever reaching the status of sausage links was avoided by dumping them promptly into the city garbage dump.

Besides dogs, the pound-keeper caught 10-70 cattle a month wandering the city’s streets during the summer. He estimated 500 animals were placed in the pound the summer of 1909. Sometimes a whole herd was captured running at large on Edmonton streets.