LOCK-JAW. 271 



It is really wonderful how the ever-changing 

 fashion of the day perverts the judgment and blunts 

 the feelings. 



There is now before me a letter from a gentleman 

 who is a great breeder of hunters. He acknowledges 

 that he has himself lost two horses from lock-jaw 

 produced by docking, and that he knows of other 

 cases. Yet he declares in favour of the operation, 

 because in his opinion ' it improves the horses very 

 much ! ' 



Again I say, as I did with regard to the gag 

 bearing-rein, that even if the operation of docking 

 did improve the appearance of the horse instead of 

 disfiguring it, as is really the case, we have no right 

 to inflict such torture on an animal merely to gratify 

 our eyes. 



There is even less excuse for docking than for 

 the bearing-rein, for at all events the advocates of 

 the latter do really think that it holds up a stumbling 

 horse and prevents him from running away, besides 

 ' improving ' his appearance, whereas no such argu- 

 ment can be urged in favour of docking. 



The Eoyal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

 to Animals ought to be empowered to proceed 

 against any one who was guilty of this abominable 

 practice, and ought to carry out the law in the most 

 rigid form, without the least respect of persons. 



