CHAPTER XIV 



OPINIONS OF EMINENT MEN, BOOKS AND THE PRESS ON DOCKING 



699. Captain Hayes, F.R.G.V.S., says: "All 

 Russian harness horses have long tails, and we 

 hear of no trouble." 



Justice Hawkins (Lord Brampton) said : 

 " Docking is a painful operation ; I hold a strong 

 opinion against allowing fashion, or the whim of 

 an individual or individuals, to afford justifica- 

 tion for such painful mutilation." 



Mr. P. C. Laverton-Harris, Managing Director 

 of the Toronto S.P.G.A., says: "If the horse, 

 why not the man? The absence of a tail makes 

 the horse look ugly and out of proportion. The 

 Almighty gave the horse the tail for protection 

 from flies. It is an outrage." 



J. Lee Osborn, the well-known horseman, 

 says : " The thing to aim for is to make the 

 possession of a docked horse discreditable and 

 unfashionable." 



Mr. Walter Winans says : " When I went to 

 England I found that horses got into trouble by 

 getting their tails over the reins. The reason I 

 discovered was the English custom of docking 

 horses." 



At a meeting of the City Council of West- 

 minster, not long since, a resolution was moved 

 to abolish this unbecoming custom. 



Mr. Harry Payne, the celebrated horse artist 

 (P. 65), has done a great deal of good by his 

 illustrations of the horse as Nature designed it. 

 He has on several occasions denounced this 

 fashion. 



Dr. A. E. James, the leading veterinarian in 

 Ottawa, openly declared in the Ottawa Press that 

 he would not dock any more horses. He says 

 " that horses look smarter docked is only a 

 matter of opinion, and that, as far as safety is 

 concerned, an undecked horse is just as safe as, 

 if not safer than, a docked one." 



Shakespeare, on the beauty of the tail : 



" He sees his love, and nothing else he sees, 

 For nothing else with his proud sight agrees. 

 Look, when a painter would surpass the life, 

 In limning out a well-proportion 'd steed, 

 His art with nature's workmanship at strife, 

 As if the dead the living should exceed ; 

 So did this horse excel a common one. 

 In shape, in courage, colour, pace and bone. 

 Round-hoof d, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, 



Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostrils wide, 

 High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing 



strong. 

 Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide : 

 Look, what a horse should have, he did not lack. 

 Save a proud rider on so proud a back. 

 Sometimes he scuds far off, and there he stares ; 

 Anon he starts at stirring of a feather : 

 To bid the wind a base he now prepares. 

 And whe'r he run, or fly, they know not whether ; 

 For through his mane and tail the high wind sings. 

 Fanning the hairs, who wave like feather'd wings." 



700. Hayes, in "Points of the Horse," says: 

 "It is a relic of barbarism. The idea that it 

 improves a horse's appearance is an absurdity, 

 because mutilation, especially of a very apparent 

 kind, cannot be an aid to beauty." 



General Heath, Director of Remounts, War 

 Office, says : " I am entirely in sympathy with 

 your endeavour to put an end to this barbarous 

 practice." 



Professor Beery, the high school riding expert 

 of Ohio, says : " I am radically opposed to the 

 inhuman, cruel practice of docking horses." 



Professor McGillivray, the famous Australian 

 horse trainer, says : " Never fancy you can im- 

 prove on Nature and dock your horses, thinking 

 they are better with only a stump instead of a 

 tail." 



Francis H. Rowley, President of the American 

 Humane Education Society, says : " I was the 

 first person in this country to secure a conviction 

 for docking horses. I cannot imagine anyone 

 calling himself humane who would countenance 

 for a moment such an operation." 



H.R.H. Prince Christian said in the Times: 

 "How would you like to see the winner of the 

 Epsom Derby pass the post with a bobtail?" 



Professor Pritchard, President of the Central 

 Veterinary Medical Association and of the Royal 

 Veterinary College, said: "I look upon the 

 practice as a gross act of cruelty, and, as the 

 attention of the profession all over the country 

 has been drawn to the question, I wish to 

 enter into it completely. The excuses used by 

 advocates of the practice have no foundation 

 at all." 



701. Dadd, in his book, accounts for the 



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