Owner of A Dog Is Fined

A fine of $40[*] was meted out by Judge J. D. Murphy in Police Court this morning to Mrs. Thomas Lindsay, 515[*] Twenty-fifth street, for depredations committed by a large bulldog she owns. The dog, wearing a heavy leather muzzle, accompanied the woman in the court room and sat upon the prisoners' bench during the trial, critically eying the witnesses who told of his many crimes.

The complaint charged that Mrs. Lindsay kept a vicious bulldog and permitted the animal to run at large, to the danger of the neighborhood. The complaining witness, Ernest McKay, took the stand and told of the dog having bitten him severely on the arm while he was passing the Lindsay residence on April 26. Junior Rich, son of Dr. Edward Rich, testified that the dog had bitten him some weeks ago while he was playing in the neighborhood of the Lindsay home.

Dr. Rich was called upon to testify and stated that the dog, which sat eying him from the prisoners' bench, accompanied by its mother, had killed two dozen blooded chickens belonging to him about a year ago. The doctor told of having treated the wound inflicted by the dog in the arm of McKay. The physician referred to the dog as "that lion."

Other witnesses were called to the stand and testified that the dog had killed chickens and that they had reason to believe that the animal was vicious and dangerous.

Mrs. Lindsay had a number of witnesses on hand to show that the dog was harmless and that in the instances in which it had shown a disposition to attack human beings, it had acted purely in self defense. She, herself, stated that the animal was always kept muzzled or tied, but that on the day that the dog bit McKay someone had taken the muzzle off without her knowledge. She said the complainant had fallen over the dog and that the animal, supposing that it had been attacked by the man, had bitten him through its natural instinct of self-preservation. She admitted having paid for a number of chickens which the dog had killed for Dr. Rich, but said she was not certain that the animal had ever killed any of the doctor's fowls.

"I just paid the doctor for the chickens because he made such a fuss about them," she said. Dr. Rich has always been kicking about the dog and he had her scared stiff. "I've kept the dog muzzled for this reason, not because I thought the animal was in any way dangerous."

When the court imposed the heavy fine, Mrs. Lindsay rose to her feet to protest, but the judge motioned for her to sit down, and the piece of her mind which she was about to bestow was retained intact.
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[*] These numbers may not be accurate. The fine was more than $9 and less than $100. I corrected a few spelling and other errors.

Comment: This story has some very funny bits, the dog eying its accusers, the doctor calling it a lion, and the last paragraph about Mrs. Lindsay's piece of mind being retained.

--The Evening Standard, Ogden, Utah, May 16, 1911, page 8.