is inflicted on creatures unable to raise hand to help 

 themselves, or voice to tell us what they suffer, makes it 

 ever the more black and abominable. Whether it be 

 the destruction of mother-birds (with their whole families 

 of nestlings) for the sake of their nuptial plumes, to be 

 worn in the hats and hair of human mothers; or the 

 painful docking of the tails of horses, their sole weapon 

 against the torment of stinging flies, for the sake of a 

 hideous fashion ; whether it be the treacherous sale of 

 horses worn-out in our service ; the snaring of rabbits in 

 needlessly cruel traps ; the turning adrift of friendly but 

 unwanted dogs and cats ; whether it be the unnecessarily 

 slow and painful slaughtering of animals for food ; the 

 godless keeping in captivity of wild songbirds; the 

 prisoning of eagles, hawks, and many another creature 

 that cannot bear confinement, in zoos and other places ; 

 whether it be any of these, or this sometimes distressing 

 and always unnatural training of performing animals — in 

 all, suffering is inflicted for our pleasure, distraction, or 

 convenience, and all of it is unnecessary, all of it is against 

 the conscience of the age. 



To those who are tempted by the devil of irreflection 

 to say: *' But this is the creed of sentiment and soft- 

 ness," I feel bound to answer : *' I fear no man ever 

 became a stoic, no man ever acquired the virtues of 

 fortitude and courage, hy inflicting pain on others,''^ There 

 is nothing in this new creed that prevents anyone from 

 inflicting on himself diS much hardship, risk, and privation 

 as he considers needful to make him hard and brave. 



Let me draw your attention to a strange anomaly, 

 which accounts for most of our callousness towards the 

 sufferings of animals. Nearly everyone who witnesses 



