The North Carolina Agricultural Society seeks new laws to protect sheep from being killed by dogs. Thomas Ruffin, president of said society, contends that many slaves own dogs that commit such depredations, whereby "the master would be liable for damages done by the slaves' dog." He therefore suggests that the legislature impose a tax on dogs. Ruffin hopes such a taxation will "indirectly induce persons not to have more dogs than they really need for the purpose of guarding their premises, destroying wild beasts of prey, or hunting game for food -- purposes which your memorialists certainly do not want to thwart.” However, “beyond those purposes, dogs are kept merely for amusement, or wantonly for mischief" and it is these dogs, he surmises, that "are therefore proper subjects for taxation."
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
