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Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
394
CHAPTER
L
BREEDING
AND
WHELPING
The
modern
practice
of
dog-breeding
in
Great
Britain
has
reached
a
condition
which
may
be
esteemed
as
an
art.
At
no
other
time,
and
in
no
other
country,
have
the
various
canine
types
been
kept
more
rigidly
distinct
or
brought
to
a
higher
level
of
perfection.
Formerly
dog-owners--apart
from
the
keepers
of
packs
of
hounds--paid
scant
attention
to
the
differentiation
of
breeds
and
the
conservation
of
type,
and
they
considered
it
no
serious
breach
of
duty
to
ignore
the
principles
of
scientific
selection,
and
thus
contribute
to
the
multiplication
of
mongrels.
Discriminate
breeding
was
rare,
and
if
a
Bulldog
should
mate
himself
with
a
Greyhound,
or
a
Spaniel
with
a
Terrier,
the
alliance
was
regarded
merely
as
an
inconvenience.
So
careless
were
owners
in
preventing
the
promiscuous
mingling
of
alien
breeds
that
it
is
little
short
of
surprising
so
many
of
our
canine
types
have
been
preserved
in
their
integrity.
The
elimination
of
the
nondescript
cur
is
no
doubt
largely
due
to
the
work
of
the
homes
for
lost
dogs
that
are
instituted
in
most
of
our
great
towns.
Every
year
some
26,000
homeless
and
ownerless
canines
are
picked
up
by
the
police
in
the
streets
of
London,
and
during
the
forty-seven
years
which
have
elapsed
since
the
Dogs'
Home
at
Battersea
was
established,
upwards
of
800,000
dogs
have
passed
through
the
books,
a
few
to
be
reclaimed
or
bought,
the
great
majority
to
be
put
to
death.
A
very
large
proportion
of
these
have
been
veritable
mongrels,
not
worth
the
value
of
their
licences--diseased
and
maimed
curs,
or
bitches
in
whelp,
turned
ruthlessly
adrift
to
be
consigned
to
the
oblivion
of
the
lethal
chamber,
where
the
thoroughbred
seldom
finds
its
way.
And
if
as
many
as
500
undesirables
are
destroyed
every
week
at
one
such
institution,
'tis
clear
that
the
ill-bred
mongrel
must
soon
altogether
disappear.
But
the
chief
factor
in
the
general
improvement
of
our
canine
population
is
due
to
the
steadily
growing
care
and
pride
which
are
bestowed
upon
the
dog,
and
to
the
scientific
skill
with
which
he
is
being
bred.
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