CRUELTY TO BIRDS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 56, 7 March 1914, Page 7

CRUELTY TO BIRDS

(FROM OUR OWN CORRIBPONDBNT.) SYDNEY, 28th February. Every now and again attention is drawn, through the medium of the newspapers, to the wanton cruelty to birds in this and 1 other countries. 'Letters appear in the papers for some days, " Humanitarian" usually leading the way, and when the indignant outburst is over the matter is promptly • forgotten and the cruelty continues. A r i& most of the writers of these letters . are women j and it is women who are largely responsible for the cruelty— women who love to have pretty little birds and beautiful feathers in their hats. > The subject has just been revived in Melbourne, and, now the Sydney papers are taking it up also. It began with a protest against what happened to birds caged at the Eastern Market in Melbourne. Then the scope widened to take in the trap shooting of sparrows, starlings, pigeons, and galahs. The secretary pi the Gun Clubs' Association in Victoria advocates consistency. He writes to the Argus : "Be consistent. Stop field shooting, stop boxing, stop steeplechasing, stop 'hunting, stop coursing, stop fishing — stop the lot. Stop the Gun Clubs' Association, with its ■144 clubs and 8000 members. Stop the purchase of ten million rounds of ammunition, value £70,000, and 2000 guns, value £50,000 per annum hy these men. Stop the manufacture of cartridges and guns. Stop the man who sells them. Be consistent, stop the whole lot. Also stop thfei ' humanitarian ■ who protects the pigeon from destruction, but is very happy to receive a brace or two from the hands of the brutal shooter for dinner." For, says lie, every sport that involves killing is to a certain extent cruel. We needn't be so consistent as all that, however, and we can yet do something to alleviate the stiff etings of these pretty creatures_ of the bush. In Sydney recently & bird dealer of the west was fined 20s and £5 costs for causing cruelty to a hundred parrots which had "been sent to a dealer in' Sydney. When the birds arrived in Sydney in a cage 70 of them were living, but 30 had died on the way, no food or water having been provided in the cage. Who will say that that man did not deserve his punishment?