CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11462, 28 December 1897, Page 3

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sie, —In reply to your footnote to my letter of Dec. 23,1 certainly did not intend to impute dishonesty on the part of the slaughterman. The position is that in addition to his own lot of pigs, he frequently has several other lots to slaughter, and it is not always easy to {keep them apart. Pigs do not always kill out as well as lie purchaser anticipates, and in such case, unless he has put an indelible mark on his pigs, bo is apt to think that they have mixed with others and that he has not received his own. Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Societies have no more chance of preventing theearmakmg of pigs than the ringing of pigs or the branding of cattle, both of which are more prolonged and painful operations than earmarking. All that we can do is to insist upon small marks being made. With regard to my not having reported cases of cruelty at .Addington Yards, scarcely a month passes^

that there are not one or more such cases included in my list of cautions given. But 1 am glad to say that they have rarely boon of a serious character! In suggesting that much cruelty to animals takes place at Addington, your reporter and your contemporary the Star are casting an unmerited reflection upon those who do business in stock there, and upon the conduct of perhaps the best managed and most complete saleyarus in Now Zealand. —I am, Ac., REGINALD POSTER, Inspector S.P.C.A.

TO THE EDITOR. Sin, —I was glad to see the notice under the above heading in to-day’s issue, but I cannot agree with the writer’s views on dehorning. He mentioned the case of a bullock with ingrowing horns, and then proceeded to add; —“ Those who object to dehorning cattle would have had an instructive lesson by visiting the yards yesterday.” Now every sensible man knows that in the few isolated cases of ingrowing horns, the operation is necessary and humane, but it has no bearing whatever on tho general practice. With regard to the other bullocks, he mentioned,he gives no particulars whatever. Animals get injured in transit in more ways than one, and their sufferings are often duo directly to human carelessness and indifference, and I would rather see an endeavour made to rectify these matters, such as rough shunting for instance, than attempts to justify tho barbarous cruelty of dehorning cattle, the champions of which were the first to condemn it, as they spoke only of pecuniary advantages,. and admitted in the same breath that it caused great pain. I venture to think we may safely leave this question to the best possible authorities, namely, the veterinary surgeons, who aro unprejudiced, and have not... dig to gain or lose. “In the opinion of veterinary surgeons, it causes great pain when the horns are grown.” (Otago Daily Times) —I am, Ac. CITIZEN.