Leash laws for dogs tell us a lot about humans
Pity America’s dog owners! As warm weather descends, communities in the US from California to Arizona to Michigan have announced stricter enforcement of leash laws. I do not have a dog in this particular fight, but I do have an interest in bits of social history that tend to be overlooked. And a glance at the history of leash laws tells us why they’re likely to stick around: Because someone always comes up with a new reason why they’re important.
Leashes have been known since ancient times, but requiring them is a more recent development. A leash was traditionally a sign distinguishing wild from domesticated dogs. George Vest’s 1870 Eulogy of the Dog— often cited, inaccurately, as the origin of the cliché that dog is man’s best friend—was actually delivered in court, where Vest was arguing on behalf of a farmer whose unleashed hunter, Old Drum, had been shot dead by a neighbour who feared the animal was a stray about to prey on his livestock.
(Attacks on livestock by stray dogs still happen.) Leash laws became common in the US not to protect animals, but to protect people. An 1891 article in The Lancet urged that unleashed dogs be captured, and, if not claimed, killed to reduce the spread of rabies, which at the time was rampant. A 1903 report from Colorado Agricultural College noted despairingly that the disease had been “positively proven" in about half the states “and probably exists in all." Reformers demanded mandates, but while town councils dithered, judges found ways to encourage leashes.
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