The Bobby Calf Trade

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 299, 14 September 1936, Page 13

The Bobby Calf Trade

Sir, —I read R. M. Thomson’s letter relating to transport of bobby calves. I would like to refer to the portion of his letter wherein he states that he saw a young man throwing calves into a railway truck, and that he could hear the thuds as they landed in the truck, but he states he was too far distant, to do anything. Now, I would like to point out to Mr. Thomson that if he is as humane as he professes to be, and could hear the thud of the calves landing in the truck, he was by no means too far distant to utter his protest to the young man concerned. I have been among stock all my life, and I have collected bobby calves from the beginning of the trade; I know from experience that the calves so many of the townfolk protest about being cold and hungry because they persist in bleating are in many cases the best and best-fed calves in the truck. If Mr. Thomson is a family man he should know that a baby is not necessarily cold or hungry because it cries.

Lastly, he refers to the Government being shamed into more humane and healthy conditions of live stock transport. My long experience of the condition of stock trucks when loaded has been very satisfactory, and I would like to inform Mr. Thomson that it does not take long for a truck full of cattle to become in a dirty state.—l am, etc., M. WILLS. Levin, September 11.