THE FARM.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 662, 31 October 1884, Page 11

THE FARM.

DOCKING HORSES.

I. —PRO. , x At a large meeting of the Midland Counties VeterinarjT Association on April 4, in Birmingham, a paper was read by Mr Edward Stanley, F.R.C.V.S., of Warwick, from which we take an extract. Why are horses so generally docked ? For cleanliness and comfort to horse and owner.—Experience has taught men that the long tail of his noble favourite is useless to the horse, and a nuisance to the owner. A 3 a dirt distributor it has few equals. We don’t canter over grassy plaius, but use them on muddy roads, with valuable carriages behind them, or well-dressed gentlemen on their backs, who consider cleanliness a comfort. The short dock means or makes short hair, which limits the mud-bespattering power of that appendage, aud it is not necessary to leap over the banks of Ireland to know the discomfort of a long dock swaying to and fro in a helplessly indifferent 3rnother-everybody fashion ; aod servants bless the long tail in harness, when the use of the whip is answered by a playful whisk

of the interesting organ, and a disagreeable shower of particles scattered everywhere. Observation of stable management shows the tails of horses are often neglected and filthy ; a short tail is usually kept much cleaner than along one. Domestication makes a shoit tail a positive comfort to a horse. After a certain age its natural use has passed away, the majority of horses beiog compell-id to relingmsh the opsu fields for the stable. What a miserable picture is a wet tail, bedraggled with mud clinging about the poor beast’s legs, ora long washed tail, left to dry on a tired, shivering, willing siave after bis d*y’s work. Often and often this appendage is forgotton or neglected, especially in the coarse animals that have the most luxuriant supply of graceful tresses, and we find an accumulation of dirt and filth a source of irritation, itching, and consequent rubbiug of the parts, destroying the hair and causiug unsightly di ngurement.

Docking is not only expedient but necessary for sab ty and utility.—lt is usually acknowledged by thinking men that a short dock is abs ilutely necessary for the safe driving of the majority of our many classes of harness horses, cobs, and ponies ; the latter class being used in low-seated carriages, render a short dock imperative for the comfort aud safety of the driver. Country folks keep the same phaeton, gig, village cart, four-wheeler, or trap for years, and use young, untrained animals, of various s zis, in the same conveyance, so that it is impractical to say put up your box seat, raise your dash-board, rein suporter, &e. It is ridiculous to talk of a long tail being less likely to get over the driving rein than a short docked one, when it makes a, circular remonstrance- against the driver’s urging whip, adroitly catching the rein (and the horse, knowing he has done wrong, tucks his tail between his legs, and holds it tightly), and if vicious it is a perilous moment, and disagreeable enough at any time for drivers sitting below their horses. Gouty individuals, stout ladies, lame folks, and many others, cannot go on coaches. Shall such horse owners be condemned to stop at home because sentimentalists would oblige tbem to run a risk of danger so plain, yet so easily obviated ? With a short dock such an occuranoe is almost impossible, or very rare indeed ; a cocky little wriggle will liberate the rein, even if caught ; to hold it is next to impossible. On pecuniary grounds.—The highest commercial quality of a horse i-s his appearance, and this is never complete unless he has two good ends—i.e., head and talk One can scarcely believe how much a horse’s value 13 increased by the simple and almost painless operation of docking ; it puts £25, £SO, or even £lC® on some animals. Select a young, strong, half-bred weight-carrier, with a long, heavy tail, and terminal extremity, 3 or 4 inches too long, curled upwards and outwards, the tip elevated through the hair in theaaimal’s vain efforts to raise the tail (or carry bis flag) which the attenuated are too weak to elevate, or even to carry straight—dock such a horse,, in other words cut off the flimsy, inert, and useless as well as unsightly extremity, and up goes the tail and with it the horse’s commercial value. The pecuniary argument alone will prove a powerful cause for continuing the operation. Docking lambs i 3 economy, and a direct pecuniary saving Eo owners, and therefore for the public good ; the lambs gain in comfort and cleanliness, they escape the attack of flies (surely Nature is more cruel than art in permitting the larva of the fly to prey on the living flesh of the sheep) 30 that docking lambs means practically saving their lives, saving expense in shepherds’ time to watch for maggots and dressing dreadful sores, which cause immense suffering and and is a. saving of food for the people. Sentimentalists will tell us that little lambs are very cruelly treated ; some even die under this barbarous operation performed by rude, uncouth bauds.. and quite unnecessarry if the shepherd is sufficiently vigilant in watching his flock ; yet the kindness of the shepherd is proverbial. If docking is justifiable for gain in one class of animals it is also in another.

Is docking cruelty ?—Cruelty means inhumanity, barbarity, unmerciful brutality. All men and animals that have a nervous system are inevitably bound to suffer pftin, and we are justified in painful operations if in our judgment the object is to ben-fit mankind, either directly or indirectly. As instances of the justifiable infliction of pain, we have the horrors of war, our slaughterhouses, destmetion of game and vermin, vivisection, aud the minor operations on domestic animals, as castration, spaying, inserting rings in the no3e of bulls aud pigs, rounding hounds’ ears, branding stock, ear-marking- cattle amputating dew claws, shearing and clipping animals, and surgical operations of all kinds. We are justified iu killing animals because we relish the food ; although vegetarians prove flesh is unnecessary for the support of human life, still an infiuate amount of pain is caused by the fashion of eating fl;sh. The structure of tails all attenuate from base to apex, an instance of vitality at its lowest ebb, and is well illustrated iu young pigs. As to the cruelty of the operation of docking it is idle seLtimeut to call it pain ; hundreds are docked by a cut of a knife, standing without restraint of any sort, many do not feel cauterising the cut surface ; almost all will allow manipulation of the sore during the healing process without flinching. If this agitation goes no further than to prevent untimely aud needless docking b}’ officious and thoughtless people, it wi’l do good, as doubtless there are proper and even scientific methods of performing that simple operation which go far to rob it of its apparent barbarity. I cannot believe the public will permit this simple act to be stopped by law. It was subsequently moved and carried : (a) “That the members of this Association are of opinion that docking horses is a necessary and useful operation, when scientifically performed by a veterinary surgeon. ’’ — (b) “ That the members of this Association are of opinion that docking horses is not cruelty in the' ordinary meaning of that word.”—(c) “ That the members of this Association protest against the measures taken by the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for prosecuting veterinary surgeons, as a means of preventing docking horses.”— -(d) “ Tbat in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable that the indiscriminate docking of horses which now go S 3on should be curtailed, and be applicable only when it is absolutely necessary.” (To be Continued).