County May Have to Raise Taxes to Cover Dog Damage, June 9, 1926

Stokes Dogs Do More Damage. . . Three More Claims Filed Against County—Two Old Ones Paid Off—C.H. Lunsford Kills 14 Dogs in His Sheep Pasture

Dogs continue to cost Stokes county tax-payers considerable money, the tax collected from dog owners not being anything like sufficient to meet the heavy demands made on the county for damage done by the canines. At Monday’s meeting of the county commissioners three more claims were filed against the county for damage done by dogs, as follows:

C.H. Lunsford, loss of nine sheep, claim $135. Jurors were appointed to investigate this claim. They are Joe Johnson, J.B. Ferguson, and George Robertson.

H. Nelson filed claim of $50 for loss of two dogs. Jury: W.J Poore, A.M. Shelton, and W.J. Rhodes.

William Golden, bitten by mad dog, claim $50. Jury: N.A. Martin, M.O. Jones, and E.P. Pepper.

At a former session of the board, C.E. Francis made a claim for $100. He was bitten by a mad dog and was paid $80. R.T. Pell was paid $45 for the loss of one dog some time ago.

C.H. Lunsford, who filed claim for the loss of sheep, reported that he had killed 14 dogs in his sheep pasture recently and that he had so far been unable to find the owners of any of the dogs.

In cases in which damage is claimed against the county for depredations caused by dogs, the commissioners are invariably unable to find the owner of the dog, and hence the tax-payers have to “come across” and pay the bill. At the present rate of increase in damage claims, it looks like it will be necessary to increase the tax rate to take car of the damage claims on account of the canines.

From the front page of the Danbury Reporter, Wednesday, June 9, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn91068291/1926-06-09/ed-1/seq-1/