SHOW POULTRY

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 9 March 1935, Page 16

SHOW POULTRY

ART OF FAKING QUEST FOR JUDGE’S AWARD POSITION IN ENGLAND A rather intriguing book, “The Art of , Faking Exhibition Poultry,” is written by that well-known poultry authority, Mr George R. Scott, ' who is a recognised judge of several breeds, states a writer in the North British Agriculturist. Now, who would ha\ e thought that faking for show purposes wajs }a recognised practice amongst poultry breeders? And yet we are assured that “every attempt to stamp out of existence the faking of exhibition poultry has failed,”’ and that ‘•it has failed dismally and completely.” Moreover, for the “faker” theio is .no punishment at all. He may receive no award, but that is all. Being found out merely constitutes to the “faker” an incentive to try again with the same bird under another judge, or with a more perfectly faked bird under the same judge. This is all very disturbing. It .is awful to think of what may be done by an exhibitor in order to get the coveted prize ticket. It is still more disturbing to be told by the writer of this book that he does not for a moment believe that the faking of poultry wilt ever be abolished, any more than, a long series of moral delinquencies which he names, or even war. | When one begins to think of faking las applied to showing the end is a bewildering maze exceedingly difficult to get clear of. The problem which at once arrests our attention is: Where does faking begin and where does it end? Now and then we get i show societies swelling with moral indignation over a specific case and leading an obviously innocent world to believe that a great thing has been done in making an example of the culprit for daring' to improve on nature in the sordid quest of showing distinction. As most men of the world know, however, this is all humbug. The j writer of this book, with delightful i candour shows to what extent faking operates in the case of poultry. ! Others know quite as well that in | other directions the showyard reeks of faking in one form or another. And | yet there is no obviously genuine attempt to arrest it. It crops up in dozens of ways. There are few live stock breeds free of it. We have i sheep breeds coloured artificially m I order to show them up more effecItively; cattle have their horns j mechanically, encouraged into orthodox shape; cattle without horns have I their features titivated in order to enhance their appearance; horses have 1 their feet adjusted in order to better meet the fashionable taste of the moment; and so on. This is all faking in the real sense of the term, anci there you are. ■j The writer of this book may be quite correct in claiming that the ! faking of poultry will never be abolished. May we not as emphatically hazard the opinion that the faking of | other show stock will also go on just las it has done for many years past? Of course, it can be stopped. If show ' societies abandon spectacular spasms of righteous indignation and take up this matter in a genuine business-like way, faking of all sorts can be got rid of just as easily as the scrub bull.” Even the alleged impossible

problem of “faked” poultry might oe solved, despite Mr Scott’s pessimistic view of the difficulties involved.