§ MR. STACPOOLEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is a fact that under the Metropolis Local Management Act the owner of a dog taken or decoyed to a certain "dogs' home," and sold after three days, has no legal status against the purchaser; whether it is with the sanction of Government that the police are the principal recruiting officers for this dogs' home; and whether the constables, receive any part of the £600 or £800 per annum realized by the sale of dogs captured through their agency?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, that under the Metropolis Police Act of 1867 stray dogs were seized by the police, and were taken to the police station, where the inspector on duty obtained a description for circulation. The dogs were then sent to the home for lost and stray dogs at Battersea, where they were kept three clear days as required by law, and then destroyed or otherwise disposed of. When a dog was disposed of after the lapse of time allowed by law the owner had, he believed, no legal status against the seizure. All dogs who had collars with addresses on were returned to their owners by the police. The police did not recruit for the Dogs' Home, and seizing stray dogs was a very unpleasant and dangerous duty—in which the police very often came out the greater sufferers of the two. The police were strictly forbidden to accept any reward or gratuity whatever for finding or restoring such dogs.