Test3 sandbox DavidSmith

Question: Did Joseph Smith sacrifice a dog while treasure seeking?

A few people claimed that Joseph Smith sacrificed a dog during an effort to dig for treasure.

Source 1: Emily M. Austin Emily Austin was the sister Sally Knight, Joseph Knight's daughter in law. Emily was an early convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but left the Church around the time of Joseph Smith's death. In 1882 she published an autobiography titled Mormonism; Or, Life Among the Mormons. In the portion about her earlier years she wrote:

We knew this same Joe Smith had often been in Colesville, to visit his Universalist friends or brethren. . . . He also told his friends that he could see money in pots, under the ground. He pretended to foretell people's future destiny, and, according to his prognostication, his friends agreed to suspend their avocations and dig for the treasures, which were hidden in the earth; a great share of which, he said, was on Joseph Knight's farm. . . . While I was visiting my sister [Sally Knight], we have walked out to see the places where they had dug for money, and laughed to think of the absurdity of any people having common intellect to indulge in such a thought or action. However, all of those things had long since become oblivious; for in the time of their digging for money and not finding it attainable, Joe Smith told them there was a charm on the pots of money, and if some animal was killed and the blood sprinkled around the place, then they could get it. So they killed a dog, and tried this method of obtaining the precious metal; but again money was scarce in those diggings. Still, they dug and dug, but never came to the precious treasure. Alas! how vivid was the expectation when the blood of poor Tray was used to take off the charm, and after all to find their mistake, that it did not speak better things than that of Abel.

Emily's antipathy toward Joseph Smith is evident in her description of his treasure digging.

Source 2: