WORK OF S.P.C.A.

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 147, 18 March 1937, Page 12

WORK OF S.P.C.A.

Need For Reasonable Attitude Stressed

Members should avoid action or statements which might iu any way cause the public to look upon society members as cranks or to bring the movement into ridicule, said the Rev. Clyde Carr, M.P.. Timaru, when presiding at the annual conference of the Federated Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which was held in the Wellington S.P.C.A. rooms yesterday. It had to be realised that a certain amount of cruelty was inevitable; Nature was certainly cruel, and man was perhaps inherently cruel. Commercialism and greed and economic necessity also came in, and an example of the latter aspect was the bobby calf industry. There bad been no bobby calf trade till the slump came, and then it was introduced on the ground that it was essential that the farmer should sell his very young calves to make ends meet. The slump had ended, and the dairy-farmer was really on a fairly good basis, with his guaranteed price, but the bobby calf trade persisted, not as a necessity at all, but as a rather doubtful luxury trade. Trapping and Poisoning. Mr. Carr referred to the trapping and poisoning of rabbits and the trapping of opossums. The use of phosphorus for the poisoning of rabbits was outrageously cruel and should be eliminated. An effort should also be made to make it compulsory for traps to be cleared twice daily. Rabbit trapping had in some parts of the country become rabbit farming, there was a proposal to bring special opossums. the silver grey and black, to New Zealand, and the Government proposed to have special breeding grounds for pheasant and quail for the pleasure of sportsmen. Personally he got no pleasure from killing anything unnecessarily, hut others apparently did, and the societies and the federation had to recognise facts and not go to extremes lest they should bring upon the movement, which was of immense service and value, a feeling of opposition. or perhaps even ridicule. They bad to Im reasonable, otherwise they would prejudice their own case. The societies, ho added, could take pride in the fact that Ihe sale and use of birdlime bad boon prohibited and that the humane killer was being applied to an increasing extent in certain freezing works and municipal houses. Election of Officers. The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted: — President, Rev. Clyde Carr, M.P. (Timaru); chairman of executive committee, Mr. John Howell (Wellington) ; executive committee, Messrs. Spencer Mason (Auckland), F. J. Marfield (Waikato), J. Rnsden Salt, Col. G. Mitchell, and Mrs. C. Christie (Wellington).

Tho I’amous Swiss guide Joseph-Aris-tiilo Simon. who accompanied tourlsls in <-oino of ilie most daring climbs iu the .Mont. I’.l.jn,- range, has died at Chamonix, aged >O.