Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
ELECTROCUTION OF DOGS
ELECTROCUTION OF DOGS. Handling stray dogs has been a recurrent problem for city officials. Shooting the animals had been a solution for many years in the 1800s. Its effectiveness, however, was challenged in July, 1891 when a couple was hit by a load of shot when the gun was discharged by accident. Continued dog problems, however, led some writers of our local newspaper into creating a bit of news.
On July 13, 1891, writers of the Dubuque Daily Herald claimed they had recently "uncovered" plans to reduce the stray dog population in the city. Mayor Charles J. W. SAUNDERS had instructed the official to invent a devise to kill the animals with electricity. The instrument, according to the article in the newspaper, was tested before a group of 50-75 aldermen, physicians, and interested residents near the DUBUQUE CITY HALL.
Designed to be carried by police, the device was 3.5 x 6.5 inches and weighed seven ounces. When opened for service, it was said to cover 25 square feet and had the capability of killing all dogs within a 500 foot radius.
The device contained many small galvanic cells producing powerful currents of electricity. Set at an intersection of two streets, a small switch would be thrown sending the current out through any object until reaching a dog without a license tag on its collar. As the current approached a dog, the animal would tremble, fall dead and then the skin would split from the nose to the tail and became loosened from the body.
Licensed dogs would be protected. The metallic tag on the dog's collar acted as a shield similar to shields on watches that protected them from magnets. The current would harmlessly pass by licensed animals.
When tested at the city hall, the current was seen to shoot out, pass by a licensed dog, and "grasp in its fatal embrace two woolly curs who fell like a flash with their hide splitting." An automatic register on the machine printed on a card the number and street in front, or rear, of which the dead dog lay, signaled for the garbage man, and recorded the exact hour of killing.
It was expected that the sale of the tanned dog skins would pay for building and keeping the machines in order.
See: SLACKWATER NAVIGATION COMPANY)
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Source:
"Electrocution is Extant," Dubuque Daily Herald, July 14, 1891, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=_OG5zn83XeQC&dat=18910714&printsec=frontpage&hl=en