CASE FOR S.P.C.A. FAILS

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 69, 22 March 1920, Page 8

CASE FOR S.P.C.A. FAILS

COUPLING OF CALVES NOT A

CRUEL PRACTICE!

"The practice of coupling young calves, until they are weaned, so that the mother of one of them will suckle both, is not common in New "Zealand, but it is apparently adopted in some farming countries," said Mr. E. Page, S.M., m giving his reserved judgment' at the Magistrate's Court this morning regarding a prosecution made by the •Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals against Reginald Welsby on a charge of ill-treating fourteen calves.' The defendant, said the Magistrate, had been at some pains to ensure that the collars used should be suitable, for they had been specially made of broad pliable leather, with a connecting chain, of suitable length fitted with a proper swivel. After hearing the evidence and' viewing the animals and the country on which they are running, his Worship said, he was of opinion that 'the case for the prosecution had not been established. The calves were in very forward condition and looked sleek and •well. The couplings weje of sufficient length to enable each animal to movjs, feed, or lie down freely. The country was hilly, but the calves appeared to move over it together without discomfort. The calves in each pair were evenly matched' in size'and age, and the couplings was > discontinued as soon as the calves were weaned. . .

The evidence indicated that the running of two calves with each cow was not detrimental to the cows, and one witness had expressed the confident opinion that one calf would be quite unable to take the whole of the milk from one of the cows, which are of:milking strains giving a plentiful supply of milk, and that the running of the two calves to the cow was of advantage to the cow, and eliminated the danger of the overstocking of the. udder and the troubles consequent thereon. "I think that the adoption of this system, " said the Magistrate in conclusion, "is not more 1 inhumane than the keeping of a dog on a chain/ the keeping of a calf tethered to a fence or stake, or the working for long periods daily of bullocks in yokes." During the.hearing of the case Mr. R. Kennedy, appeared for the S.P.C.A., and Mr. B, B. Cook for the defendant.