OUR TREATMENT OF ANIMALS.

Press, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5074, 12 December 1881, Page 3

OUR TREATMENT OF ANIMALS.

TO THB KDITOB OF THH PBSSB. Slß,—Our friend "The Loafer in the Street," has already done good by pointing out, in hie ironical way, the cruelty with which many hones ere treated here, especially on Sundays, and the disgrace it is to our community that thoie who happen to witness cruelty are too cowardly to protest and to stop it. Allow mc to add that if people who are professedly educated, thoughtful, and humane, will not take the trouble to be scrupulously careful of the health end comfort of their horses, and will not insist upon constant kind treatment bbing vied by othen, we cannot be surprised to Sad downright cruelty inflicted every day by those who are ignorant, thoughtless, or naturally brutal. Prosecution! for cruelty to animals do some good, even if (as far too often happens) the ease is dismissed; bat what ia really wanted is to turn public opinion in faror of far greater consideration for animals, and for horses in particular, than now exists. X am convinced that public opinion has it* effect fo; good upon all classes of the community down to the vary lowest, and publio opinion will be led in the direction, I hope, far more by example than by any amount of adTocaey in print or speech. A comparatively trifling cue came under my notice to day, which I give yon, not as a case of cruelty but as a fair instance of the want of consideration for horses amonert thott *ho should set an example. This (Sunday) ereninf «Iw« tiding up to tows, ttt half -past nx, I noticed a young

local preacher cantering ahead of mc on ft pony, whioh wu going "as lame a» a tree." Noticing the lameness, and that at least one ihoe (if not more) wai off, I ventured to tell the rider of the fact, aad to remark that the road wu precious hard for cantering. The rider replied that he knew it, and continued to canter, being apparently in too great a hurry to bother hu head about the soles of his pony's feet Feeling annoyed at the inconsistency and want of humanity on the part of such a person, I followed the rider as he cantered over the stoney road for another mile, and saw him hitch up his pony to a fence and hurry into a chapel. I returned to the chapel nearly two hours later, intending to speak quietly to the reverend young man about his pony, but found the owner still engaged in earnest prayer, and the pony still tied up to the fence, limping, with both hind shoes off and the front shoes badly in wan! of changing ; to add to his comfort a nice bit of grass was just beyond reach of his nose. The chapel dosed, but my friend not coming to his pony I waited half an-hour, end then took the liberty of watering the little beast at a trough close by, and tying him up again at 9 p.m. How much longer he was left there I cannot say, but it ia fair to assume that he has been cantered home again, and will be shod as soon as this meets the eye of my reverend young friend. It would be easy to find far worse instances than this. Let anyone go to the neighbourhood of a church or a chapel on a hot Sunday morning and he will be sure to find horses tied up in the broiling eon against the sunny side of a fence, tormented by flies, some of the hones driven in from a diitance and sweating in their harneis, some with sore backs and shoulders, but none with a drop of water near them. Meanwhile the horse's master is within, listening to the preaching, or, maybe, even himself preaching the G-ospel of humanity and kindness, ,or kneeling and praying to the Creator of man and beast tor mercy upon himself. Being late even for ohuroh cannot justify any man in ill-treating his hone, however slightly; and I think that a man who has done so, or who has omitted to make ample provision for the comfort of the poor beast that carried him thither, cannot honestly enter any place, whether to preach or to pray. To lessen one form of ill-treatment of horses, it is my intention to do a little practical piety for the next few Sundays by looking out for suoh cages as I have mentioned, and bringing them before the notice of the public in the way best calculated to let them beremembered, so I warn ohurch-goers to be careful. Surely no sensible man would be shocked if a preaoher were to preface hie sermon by stating that he would wait while anyone present having a hone outside went out and gave it water and shade. Whilst on the subject of kind treatment of animale, let mc beg your readers never to permit a horse to be shod unless they themselves or a trustworthy servant are looking on the whole time. Of all ignorant, prejudiced, thoughtless workmen farriers are the worst, and should never be trusted to work without supervision. Unless you stand over them and prevent them, they will always pare the frog and bare of the foot, which should never, on any pretext whatever, be touched or even " tidied up " with the knife. One day, after I had seen my hone shod in Ohristchurch, the journeyman blacksmith got savage with a restive young horse that he was clumsily shoeing, shortened its baiter to about a foot, and deliberately proceeded to " welt" the poor brute with an axe handle across the back and ribs in the most devilish manner. Being a man of small stature I could do no more than protest, whioh I did, and was not told to go to heaven for my pains. I need hardly say that no hone of mine has since been shod at that smithy, and that if I had laid an information against the journeyman blacksmith for cruelty, either he would have lost his place or his master his businees, whether the case had been dismissed or not. This incident alone is a sufficient reason for the rule, " Always watch your hone being shod." One more remark atd I have done. Every reasoning man now admits that the bearingrein is an instrument of torture if tightly buokled, and irritating to a horse however loosely buokled; and that not only is it useless, but actually dangerous, for this reason : if the horse stumbles, he canaot stretch out bis neck to right himself, but is bound to come down. Until Saturday I had never seen a bearing rein used in this colony, and very seldom seen a horse with broken knees ; but on that day I noticed a bearing rein on a fine horse standing in a brougham at a shop door in Ghristohuroh; the hone was tossing his head and champing his bit; it looked very showy, but it proved discomfort in the horse; I waited to ccc who the owner could be, and to my surprise found the owner was a dootor and, presumably, scientific man. Let us hope that the worthy dootor will set a good example and abolish his bearing rein in spite of any grumbling on the part of hie coachman. Yours, to., A Latvtkb. Ohrittohuroh, December 4th.