CRUELTY TO STOCK

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 210, 18 August 1934, Page 10

CRUELTY TO STOCK

Animals Suffer at Saleyards MORE CARE REQUIRED At the Stortford Lodge sale this week, one well-known fat stock buyer made some strong comment on saleyards practice. In one pen of fat ewes there was included a ewe with a leg which had evidently been broken in transit from the farm to the yards. This sheep, contended the buyer referred to, should have been put in a separate pen, as it was being knocked around by the other sheep in the pen. Several other buyers also expressed their disapproval.

The incident referred to draws attention to what may, or may not be, cases of unconscious cruelty to dumb animals. During the past few weeks alone there have been a number of animals offered for sale which were evidently in pain. The farmer and the stock agent are no less humane as a rule than any other member of the public, but it does seem a great pity that such cases of pain and anguish in sheep and cattle should pass unheeded. At the cattle sale this week a beast was offered which had one of its eyes practically gouged out by the horn of another beast and the afflicted animal was evidently suffering. Two weeks previous a ewe was offered in the fat sheep pens which had been enielly mutilated about the mouth, presumably by a dog, the flesh on the lower jaw being ba(jly torn and hanging down. This sheep was also penned with other ewes and must have had its troubles accentuated in the milling round which goes on in the pens. These few instances are by no means isolated. During the past 18 months the writer has attended most of the stock sales at the Hastings yards and has seen and had pointed out other rases of citric end sheep suffering from injuries inflicted by barbed wire and the horns of cattle beasts. To most people it is unpleasant to see animals suffering, and it would appear that some action should he taken to protect the interests of stock at the saleyards. 'A certain amount of the damage inflicted on cattle by other horned cattle can be prevented by dehorning and in this respect the onus lies on the farmer.

Mora dehorned cattle are to bo seen in New Zealand saleyards than was the case a few years ago, an evidence that the benefit of the practice is becoming more generally realised. Some startling statements have appeared in the correspondence columns of various papers alleging the grossest cruelty against dehorners, which, if true, should be rewarded with gaol. But many of these stories are weird exaggerations, and are most unlikely fe have any influence on the progress of the reform.