Encyclopedia Dubuque
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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.
On July 13, 1891, according to the writers of the Dubuque Daily Herald who had recently "uncovered" the plans to turn Dubuque into a midwestern Venice, (See: SLACKWATER NAVIGATION COMPANY) City Electrician Bunting revealed the results of his experiments. Mayor Charles J. W. SAUNDERS had instructed the official to invent a devise to kill stray dogs 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.
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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