WHAT IS DOCKINt 
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than the assertion that the tail is endowed with little sensibility. 
It is composed of bones, muscles, nerves, and blood-vessels as 
abundantly as any other part of the body. From inquiries in¬ 
stituted during many years and from personal experience, we 
find that when horses have run away, or kicked, owing to the 
reins getting under the tail, they have nearly always been 
‘ docked,’ and their behavior was, no doubt, due to their remem¬ 
bering the painful operation and consequent dread of anything 
touching the tail. A short tail is more readily thrown over the 
reins than a long one, as it is more horizontal, and the reins can 
more readily drop under it. Besides a person who would allow 
the reins to drop under his horse’s tail is not fit to be a driver.” 
From an artistic point of view docking is a disfigurement 
which destroys the contours of the body. When it is preferred 
that the horse’s tail be short, banging the hairs close to the 
stump is all that is necessary. There is, in fact, no single valid 
aro-ument in favor of docking for any reason but disease of the 
tail. On the other hand, however, the diseases that may result 
from docking deserve special mention. 
The most serious as well as the most common “accident,” 
after the operation, is tetanus or lockjaw. Paralysis, due to in¬ 
flammation of the spinal cord, may also ensue. If the ligature 
to check haemorrhage has been too tightly applied, or the hot iron 
kept on too long, so that the stump becomes subsequently in¬ 
flamed, the inflammation may extend to the muscles of the hind 
quarters and lead to gangrene. In other cases the bones of the 
tail have been known to become necrosed or carious. 
To those who claim that in the hands of an experienced per¬ 
son the operation is often painless, we wish to state that one 
hundred and two well-defined cases of lockjaw were reported in 
1891 by the officers of the Royal S. P. C. A., with a certificate 
in each case from the veterinary surgeon in attendance that the 
disease had been caused by docking, and we beg to submit the 
following opinions of veterinary surgeons : 
“ There is no justification for docking, unless the tail is de¬ 
formed or diseased.”— Prof. Pritchard , Royal College of Veteri¬ 
nary Surgeons. 
u Docking horses is cruel, barbarous, unnecessary, and dis¬ 
countenanced by the profession.”— Dr. William L. Zuill ., Uni¬ 
versity of Pennsylvania. 
“The operation is one employed to meet the demands of 
fashion. It is needless, painful, and cruel, causing the animal 
much suffering, and depriving it of its only means of defence 
