SHEEP AT ADDINGTON YARDS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17922, 16 November 1923, Page 3

SHEEP AT ADDINGTON YARDS.

IS THERE CRUELTY ? To some members of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals it has appeared that the present method of auctioning sheep at Addington involves a. certain amount of cruelty. It is. stated,, for example, that sheep coming .from Culverdeu are on the trucks all day" -without food and for the greater part of Wednesday they' go /foodless. It is considered that", apart from any question of cruelty, this must interfere with the condition of the sheep. In place of the present system, it is" .suggested that the sheep should be railed direct to the freezing works and slaughtered as soon as possible and then either auctioned on" the hooks, or shipped by the freezing companies on behalf of the owners." When there is "a big sale at Addington it is possible, so the members of the S.P.C.A. interested in the matter say, that the sheep are not slaughtered till Friday. By the adoption of the suggestion made this delay would be cut down, at least by half. .When the opinion of Mr Harry Macdonald, one. of the most, experienced stock , auctioneers at Addin^ton'^, was sought on the. proposition, lie had no hesitation fh.telling the reporter that, it was "tommy rot and was utterly impracticable." He did not think that, sheep- suffered much from being deprived of food for 24 or 36' hours; instances were not unknown of sheep having been buried in snow for five oi ,six weeks and having survived. In the pens at.the Addington yards, the- sheep got water. He did not think that the members of-.the S.P.C.A. who made the suggestion knew very much about the manner in which the stock • business was run, or'they would 1 " hot have s'ug-; gested such an impracticable proposal. Mr W. 0. Campbell, of the New' Zealand Refrigerating Company, was also of opinion that the proposition was not within the range of the practic-. able. If there was anything in the suggestion that sheep lost condition as the result of having no food while being railed .to the yards, \i§ thought that it would have been discovered long ago and steps taken to remedy the matter. But the general 'experience 'was,"he believed, that tlje sheep, after hav ing been driven from the yards to the works, arrived in good condition.. He remarked that stock were often railed longer distances tlian from Culverden arid...did .'not appear much th_ worse -tor .their deprivation of food., A practical difficulty iri connexion with the suggested auctioning on,the hooks _was that buyers would have .to visit several-freezing works which -would be, certainly, less convenient than the present method,.