ANTI-VIVISECTION

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13990, 27 August 1909, Page 6

ANTI-VIVISECTION

GOSPEL OF KINDNESS. 'I lie opening meeting of the International Anti- vivisection and Animal Protection Congress was lield at Caxton Hall, London, on July 7th, and was attended by representatives from all parts of the world—from Scandinavia to Australia and from India to South America. Sir George Kekewich, AT.P., in extending a welcome to tho delegates, said their gospel of kindness and justice was permeating the masses of the people, and they had become awakened to tho horrors that were happening in the country every day. He believed everyone of the Labour party was on the side of the anti-vivisectionist, and as that party increased in power they would become more and more a mighty force for peace, and for charity in the highest and truest sense of the word. They had had a Rtoyal Commission for what it was worth, but he did not anticipate much practical result of its labours, because it did not represent fairly the, parties in the matter. It was more or less packed, and the evidence was almost necessarily incomplete. He advocated better organisation of societies opposed to cruelty, and the formation of a central committee to make arrangements for the holding each year of meetings throughout the country, especially in the great cities. A number of papers were then read in English, French, and German, detailing the work done by anti-vivisec-tion societies in different parts of the wprld. All's A. A[. Lennox, of Darjeeling, read a paper on "The Need of humane. Work in India." One of the most diabolical forms of cruelty which cried out; for immediate suppression, she said, was that of skinning goats alive. Religious sacrifices in India were often conducted with inhuman cruelties. She urged the Government to take steps to prevent these religious parades of crueltv.

Speaking at the afternoon session on slaughterhouse reform, Mr Arthur Lee, M.P., who presided, said that when such questions as slaughterhouses reform were being discussed the hritisli public, was very squeamish. The British subject would be more squeamish if they had some idea of how the chop or the steal;, which formed part of their meals, arrived at the kitchen. They had to exijress gratitude to Germany and Continental nations for what they had done. In our Government Departments—the Admiralty and the War Office —modern and humane methods of ."slaughtering, in accordance with the report of the Admiralty Committee, prevailed. Mr John Burns had also disentangled himself from the meshes of red tape, and had given material assistance to that, movement. (Cheers.) So far as humanity was concerned, they must devote nil their efforts to getting rid of the private slaughterhouses, and to substitute for them public abattoirs, under proper official supervision. In ihe discussion which followed, .Mr J. Lindsay, president of the London Butchers' Trade Society, said that the Butchers' Federation were not averse to a uniform official inspection of meat, but what they wanted was that properly trained men should be

appointed to undertake that inspection. There was no institution wiiich was more thoroughly inspected than the private slaughterhouse in London. Inferring to Mr Arthur Lee's statement, -Air Lindsay said: —" Vou may take your chop and steda with the greatest comfort, because I feel sure that, the men who have the supervision of the meat are practical business men. It- is to our own interest to kill animals in as humane a way as possible." In the Aledical Anti-Vivisection section, Dr. Robert Bell (London) spoke of the liselessness of vivisection in relation to cancer. The Cancer Research Fund, he contended, could never justify its existence, for the reason that it-was beginning at the wrong end of the subject, and was acting in direct opposition to all previous efforts which had been made with the object of subjugating disease.