184 



MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[chap. 



Another example I well remember is that of a 

 young fellow, who had learnt boxing, jumping 

 up into a coal cart, and throwing the man back- 

 wards on to the hard pavement, and so disfigur- 

 ing him that for many years afterwards there 

 was very little cruelty seen in this neighbour- 

 hood. This particular man had cut out the eye 

 of his horse with the lash of the whip. 



The Toronto Open-Air Horse Parade Associa- 

 tion passed a law that they would not allow any 

 horses with docked tails to win prizes. 



711. The necessity for reform in legislation is 

 emphasised by many articles that have appeared 

 in various papers on both sides of the Atlantic. 

 The New York Times a few months ago devoted 

 a whole column to the tricks of horse "doping." 

 It described in detail the cruel methods adopted 

 by horse dealers to hide lameness and other 

 defects by dope and by other forms of gross 

 cruelty, such as laming the other foreleg in order 

 to make the horse appear sound on both. A Bill 

 was introduced at Albany, New York, to protect 

 buyers from frauds of horse dealers, and to save 

 worn-out horses from torture. 



I think one of the worst things which the 

 British nation allows to exist is the decrepit 

 horse traffic. Thanks to the hard work of the 

 R.S.P.C.A. and other societies, this offensive 

 practice has been greatly checked ; but there is 

 still much to be done. I refer the reader to 

 Sidney Trist's excellent book " The Under Dog," 

 in which is described in detail this abominable 

 traflBc. 



712. I was glad to see the English Press take 

 up strongly the subject of doctoring horses at the 

 International Horse Show. The Daily Graphic 

 had some excellent articles on the cruel practices 

 of grooms at Olympia. Great credit is due to the 

 R.S.P.C.A. for their work in showing up these 

 practitioners. 



We must, however, be thankful that the 

 brutal "sport" of bull-fighting has been 

 banished from the British Empire. The follow- 

 ing extract from an article by my twin brother 

 in the Animal Guardian will suffice to show 

 what awful cruelty is allowed to go on in Spain. 

 The article runs : " I can vouch for this. A horse 

 which had had its belly ripped open by the bull's 

 horns, and a portion of its entrails protruding, 

 was kicked and beaten until it hobbled out of 

 the arena. The entrails were then pushed back, 

 a piece of cotton-waste stuffed into the wound, 

 and a few crude stitches put in to hold the 

 wound together. It was then sent back limping 

 into the arena to be again used as a target for 

 the next attack from the bull. I maintain that 

 there is no 'sport' in the world where such 

 wanton cruelty is perpetrated as to the horses in 

 the Spanish bull-fights, and yet in other respects 

 the Spaniard seems to be a true sportsman." 



713. The following article from the Canadian 

 Press will bear repetition : " Always bearing in 



mind that in everything prevention is better than 

 cure, and that the chief object of a humane 

 organisation is prevention of rather than prose- 

 cution for cruelty, we should realise fully how 

 important it is for us to see that the young 

 generation is taught very strictly the principles 

 of kindness to other people and animals. Most 

 people, when they see an act of cruelty, say, 

 'Why don't they punish him?' They little 

 realise how much better it would be to educate 

 those who have to work with horses to the right 

 way of treating animals. If such people were 

 taught to treat animals kindly, the law would 

 serve to remind them not to neglect what they 

 knew." 



An authority on horse matters writes : " Let 

 fashion raise her voice that dogs' ears be 

 trimmed to points or horses' tails be converted 

 into hat-pegs, and fashion followers are willing 

 to accede. It matters not that a Queen Victoria 

 or a King Edward or a Queen Alexandra or a 

 King George and his consort frown upon such 

 mutilation, with its unavoidable suffering. 

 Through such mutilation the smart ones are 

 discourteous to our King and smile at indecency, 

 but what care they for that?" 



Speaking of fashions, I received the following 

 lines from the well-known horse artist, Mr. 

 Harry Payne : " It would almost seem that the 

 cutting fever has spread to the human species 

 just now, as the present fashion is for all the 

 men to cut and scrape every hair from their 

 face, especially the moustache, the one time 

 much-prized appendage every youth hoped to 

 grow. They let their hair grow long on the 

 forehead, so as to allow its being brushed right 

 back, ending in a fringe at the back of the neck, 

 greased, plastered and glued down. They culti- 

 vate a stoop, draw in their chests, round their 

 shoulders, wear the trousers several inches too 

 short, adopt a vacuous look, and then they call 

 themselves ' nuts.' A proud record for the man- 

 hood of the country to attain." 



714. The American papers have done much 

 good by publishing comic pictures against cruel 

 fashions. P. 125e shows one of R. F. Outcault's 

 Buster Brown pictures, in which the inscription 

 says, " No, dear heart, we will never be civilised 

 until we have quit slaughtering animals and 

 birds by the wholesale to adorn ourselves ; when 

 we throw away the check-rein and quit docking 

 our horses' tails." 



I never so fully realised the brutality of the 

 docking fashion until I saw the number of 

 mutilated draught horses in the fly-pestered 

 North-West, toiling all day in the plough or 

 reaper, absolutely unprotected from the fly, 

 merely because fashion demands that these 

 animals, if they are to win prizes at the show, 

 must not be as Nature designed them. It is quite 

 time the legislature of this country passed a 

 similar law to that of California. 



