Chippy Jr.’s class is studying colonial history. To make the history lesson a bit more exciting, each student had to learn about a colonial job. Chippy Jr. was assigned the task of researching town pound keepers. Well, I had a little surprise for him. I know a ‘munk that still does this job in a small rural New Hampshire town. As far as I know, he is the last official pound keeper in the U.S. Everywhere else, the job has been handed over to an “animal control officer”.
In the 1700s and 1800s, towns had many farms. Cows, horses, sheep, pigs and other farm animals would sometimes escape and damage the neighbors crops. The town pound keeper’s job was to capture these loose animals and lock them up until the owner paid a fine. Since they had already escaped once, the “pound” had to be built like a fortress with thick tall stone walls.
Junior and myself took a weekend trip to Lyndeborough to interview Harry the town’s pound keeper. Harry explained how the job has evolved over the years. There are very few farms to day. He mostly deals with escaped cats, dogs, squirrels, raccoons, the occasional alligator, and of course human pets who think they are clever. According to Harry human pets are the easiest to capture, you bait them with a pizza and a six pack of beer. He says it works every time.
[paid promotional political advertisement]
CHIPPY
For
President
Friendly, hard working, industrious, scrappy - fights for his rights to sunflower seeds, creative, willing to work in a bubble, capable: dug a 100 foot long burrow to store ten years worth of seeds, competes with squirrels four times his size - climbs trees to harvest acorns
"Small in size, tall in stature"
Vote for Chippy
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