Barbed Wire Kills Hunting 



animal, a few moments before, looked a priceless cross- 

 country conveyance; now he was a pitiable sight worth, 

 well ... a trip to the kennels. 



I could fill books with the crimes committed by 

 barbed wire on farm stock, but there is another valuable 

 animal I have not mentioned yet, and that is the grey- 

 hound. Greyhounds have developed into a particularly 

 lucrative export trade in this country. Have you ever 

 seen one of them, while coursing a hare in open country, 

 dash into a barbed wire fence ? He is torn to ribbons 

 in an instant and he'll never see a race-track at home 

 or a cargo boat for export. If the pedigree warrants it 

 the animal may be kept for breeding purposes, but at 

 all events, its career is ruined and its value lowered 

 to a minimum. 



Admittedly, a barbed wire fence is a cheap fence to 

 erect, provided one overlooks the accident ratio. But 

 is it really cheap in the long run ? It may cost the life 

 not only of valuable beasts but it may cost the life of 

 some unfortunate farm-worker. If wire must be used, 

 why not use plain wire instead of barbed wire ? Where 

 four strands of barbed wire might suffice for a particular 

 fence I admit it might take five or even six strands of 

 plain wire to achieve the same results, so far as restraining 

 trespassing animals is concerned. But all fencing wire 

 is sold by weight and, bulk for bulk, plain wire weighs 

 lighter than barbed, especially the variety that has the 

 barbs at three-inch intervals. So, really a hundredweight 

 of plain wire will stretch a much greater distance than 

 a hundredweight of barbed wire. One great point in 

 its favour is that no matter how badly a poor dumb 



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