ALLEGED CRUELTY TO CALVES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 287, 4 September 1928, Page 7

ALLEGED CRUELTY TO CALVES

Sir. —I have read with interest “Levin .Resident’s” letter in to-day’s “Dominion” on the subject of cruelty to calves. What he says is entirely true. Many farmers apparently starve the young calves that are to be killed for the boneless veal industry rather than let them run with the cows for the few days until they are collected. Of course the meat works should refuse to pay for animals that have not been properly led. Besides that, surely the S.P.C.A. should, iu each district, make it their business to inquire into the treatment ot these calves. They are shockingly overcrowded in the lorries which collect them and in many cases if the lorry driver finds it is getting a bit late in the day and he has not finished his round he just leaves the remainder of the calves he is supposed to collect till next morning. When this happens, of course, they remain tied up on the roadside without food overnight. it great deal of this cruelty would be avoided if sufflcient lorries were used to collect the animals and deliver them at the station early in the day. I here would then be a chance of their arriving at the meat works in time to be killed the same day. As it is now, they must often spend two nights on the wav. one in the railway truck and one at 'the works if they arrive there late in the day. It does not require much imagination to picture the suffering that these baby calves must go through, and it is likely to continue unless the people who care • for animals will take the trouble to make an effective protest. I earnestly hope the matter will not be allowed to drop.—l am, etc., KAIRANGA RESIDENT. August 29.