318 GENERAL TREATMENT. 



It is scarcely necessary to cite instances of the various 

 forms of man's cruelty to the domestic or other animals. 

 They are given, in infinite variety, in the Annual or other 

 Eeports of the Eoyal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

 to Animals, and of similar societies or branches of it or them 

 throughout the civilised world. In our own country it is 

 scarcely possible to peruse a newspaper without the dis- 

 covery, if we look for them, of illustrations of ill-usage by 

 man of the horse, donkey, ox, dog, or cat. These, however, 

 are only the glaring instances that have attracted notice 

 and become public. They represent only those exceptional 

 cases which are made the subject of legal trial, decision, and 

 punishment. Of the much larger numbers that do not ob- 

 trude themselves before public courts of justice we can only 

 form a guess. But it may be desirable just to enumerate 

 some of the prevalent forms of man's cruelty that are obvi- 

 ously inimical to his own pecuniary interests, that illustrate 

 his c penny- wise and pound-foolish ' policy, when any sort of 

 policy can be said to exist at all in his treatment of those 

 domestic animals whose welfare is really so bound up with 

 his own. 



1. The transit of cattle or other animals, without water 

 or proper food, c cribbed, cabined and confined ' with no 

 reference either to health or comfort, involving the injurious 

 succession of long railway journeys. 



2. Over-driving on hard roads and through towns, in 

 glare and heat, of footsore and fattened oxen, including the 

 injudicious use of the goad, spur or whip, of sticks or stones, 

 to jaded animals, in whom, though the spirit may be willing 

 enough, the flesh is hopelessly weak. 



3. Unhealthy confinement in hot, close, dirty, unventi- 

 lated or ill- ventilated byres, stables, kennels, styes, with 

 utter disregard of the quality of the food and water supply. 



4. Over-loading of beasts of burden, including the injus- 

 tice and futility of punishment of the practical protests of 

 over-burdened animals. 



5. Man's sports, as illustrative of the wantonness of his 

 cruelty, for instance in the battue-shooting of pigeons, now 

 so common among our own aristocracy, including his de- 



