San Francisco exempted two stray dogs from its own laws
Bummer and Lazarus killed 85 rats in 20 minutes and earned a formal exemption from the city's stray-dog ordinance in 1862.
In 1860s San Francisco, the city routinely poisoned or trapped stray dogs. The city exempted Bummer and Lazarus by name. Bummer was a black-and-white Newfoundland who lived on the sidewalk outside Frederick Martin's saloon on Montgomery Street, and he was an exceptional rat-killer. In 1861 …
