1920.] 



709 



with the proper treatment of our livestock that improvement in 

 the existing conditions can be brought about. 



Some misapprehension still appears to exist as to the 

 character of the present trade in the export of horses. Before 



The Ex ort of outbreak of war in 1914, the only 



Deere it Horses *^^^^rol exercised was that provided by the 

 ^ * Diseases of Animals Act, 1910, which pro- 



hibited the shipment from any port in Great Britain to the Con- 

 tinent of Europe of any horse, ass or mule, unless it had been 

 examined by a veterinary inspector appointed by the Ministry 

 and certified in writing by him to be capable of being con- 

 veyed and disembarked without cruelty. It must not be 

 supposed, however, that the veterinary examination of horses 

 for export, under the Act of 1910, was indifferently carried out; 

 on the contrary the examination was rigorous and a high 

 standard of fitness was enforced, with the result that complaints 

 from the Continent as to the condition in which the animals 

 reached the port of debarkation had practically ceased. 

 Nevertheless, many of those interested in the humane treat- 

 ment of animals considered that the trade in worn-out horses 

 should be prohibited altogether. This view^ was embodied and 

 made law in the Exportation of Horses Act, 1914, which took 

 effect on the 1st October of that year. 



In view, however, of the Royal Proclamation of the 

 3rd August, 1914, which prohibited the exportation of animals 

 (including horses) on the outbreak of war, the general export 

 trade in horses ceased for the time being. It was not until 

 October, 1919, in response to demands from the Continent for 

 horses suitable for agricultural and other work, that the trade 

 in horses was resumed. Not until the latter date, therefore, did 

 the Act of 1914 come into active operation. That Act pro- 

 hibited the shipment of horses from any port in this country 

 unless certified by a veterinary inspector of the Ministry, after 

 examination immediately before shipment, to be capable of 

 being conveyed and disembarked without cruelty, and also of 

 being worked without suffering. The Act also empowers the 

 veterinary inspector to slaughter, without the consent of the 

 owner, any horse presented for examination and found by the 

 inspector to be in such a physical condition that it is cruel 

 to keep it alive, or that it is permanently incapable of being, 

 worked without suffering. 



B 



