CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4213, 21 September 1874, Page 3

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —It was with a feeling. of pain that I reod in your paper of yesterday a case of cruelty to a dray horse. To'those who will allow themselves to think of the helpless condition of domestic animals in their relation to man, it must at once appear that to treat them ill is most inhuman. It would be too much, perhaps, to say that in all or most instances of cruelty to the dumb creation anvintention to inflict pain is the motive. Passion, want of thought, or a misdirected endeavor to govern animals, is often the chief cause of their illtreatment. When I have seen’instances (by no means few) of poor horses doomed daily to drudge many hours, drawing heavy loads or drawing lighter loads, a great many miles, not only on week days, but sometimes bn Sundays too, I have thought their fate quite hard enough, without blows to add to their misery. Of course, all animals have a claim on our consideration, hut I think, as a rule, the horse receives much less than he deserves. I have, therefore, referred especially to this animal. I have been quite pained also to have seen horses, perhaps after a hard day’s work, turned out upon some paddock, tethered, on a cold rainy night, without a chance of shelter, and thought what cruelty it was. When the services so willingly rendered by the horse are considered, surely it is not too much to expect that his owners should give him in return sufficient food, not work him too hard, and treat him kindly.' Apart from higher motives, common humanity demands this. If the above remarks should induce even one individual, to consider how unprotected animals are—how entirely dependent for their comfort they are upon the mercy of those who control them—l shall not have made them in vain. Much may be done by bringing cases of hardened cruelty under the eye of the law—which is the only remedy in -such cases, as is done by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ; hut more good, I think, may be hoped for in awakening in the minds of the thoughtless a sense of the suffering that is often unnecessarily endured by horses.—l am, &c., Humahixt,