PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 733 



The young of cats and dogs, when but a few days or hours old, may be humanely 

 destroyed by drowning, if properly executed. This can be best accomplished by placing 

 them in a tight bag containing a stone of sufficient weight to insure speedy sinking. The 

 quickest method of terminating the existence of a large dog is, undoubtedly, to shoot him. 

 Place the muzzle of a pistol or rifle within a few inches of the head, at the side, just ovei 

 and in front of the ear. If directed behind the ear, the ball is likely to glance and pass 

 through the soft parts of the neck, and death would neither be so certain nor so instantaneous 

 as if the brain had been pierced. 



In the attempt to destroy it, no animal should be merely maimed. For this reason, if a 

 gun or a fowling-piece should be used, it should be charged with buck-shot, the side of the 

 head aimed at, and sufficiently near to insure speedy death. The same remarks apply to the 

 destruction of cats. As this animal is smaller, however, death may be instantly effected by small 

 shot fired from a gun at the head, sufficiently near to prevent the scattering of the charge. 



Killing Poultry. The remarks which we have already made as regards producing 

 insensibility by a blow upon the brain may equally apply to poultry. The almost universal 

 method of killing by chopping off the head of a fowl, and allowing the body to flutter about 

 upon the ground, is not an agreeable sight, and has certainly a demoralizing effect upon those 

 who witness it, especially upon the young and those who are not yet callous to such sights. 

 The same may be said also of the practice of opening the blood-vessels in the necks of poultry, 

 and allowing them to bleed to death more or less slowly. Therefore, to produce insensibility, 

 make use of either of the following modes: 



1. Grasp the bird by the legs, place its head upon a block, and strike it a smart, quick 

 blow with a small club, or with some equally efficient weapon, and then immediately sever 

 the head from the body by a sharp cleaver or hatchet. Retain the body in the hand until all 

 fluttering has ceased. 



2. Take the bird up, compress the throat between the thumb and finger for a minute. 

 Retaining the grasp, swing the body round several times, and then remove the head as just 

 described. Hence insensibility is produced by suffocation and loss of motion by the twisting 

 of the bones of the neck. 



3. A very sharp blow, with a small but heavy stick, behind the neck, at about the 

 second joint from the head, will injure the spinal cord so as to destroy sensation and motion, 

 if properly executed ; the head to be afterwards severed from the neck. 



4. Hang up the bird by the legs, and thrust a long, narrow, sharp-pointed knife, like a 

 pen-knife, into the brain through the back part of the roof of the mouth. Death is instan 

 taneous. To do this considerable dexterity is required. 



Killing Fish. It has been observed that fish which are instantly killed on being 

 taken from the water are vastly superior, in taste and solidity, to those which are allowed to 

 die, as is the universal custom with us. And why should this not be the case ? Why should 

 we make a distinction in this respect between animals that swim and those that fly or run ? 

 No one of us would think of eating beast or bird that had died a natural death. Various 

 modes of killing fish are practiced by different people. The Dutch, for example, destroy life 

 by making a slight longitudinal incision under the tail by means of a very sharp instrument. 



On the Rhine they kill the salmon by thrusting a steel needle into their heads. Fish 

 may be easily destroyed by striking them a quick, sharp blow with a small stick on the back 

 of the head just behind the eyes, or by taking them by the tail and striking the head quickly 

 against any hard substance. 



Poison and Gases. We have made no remarks upon the destruction of animal life 

 by means of deadly poisons, as such agents cannot, with safety, be placed in the hands of the 

 unskilled. Neither have we spoken of the use of various gases as a means of humane 

 destruction, such means not being at the disposal of the people generally. 



