American Veterinary Review. 
AUGUST, 1897. 
EDITORIAL. 
AMPUTATION OF THE HORSE’S TAIE FOR 
FASHION’S SAKE. 
W e are informed by a paragraph going the rounds of the 
sporting and agricnltnral press that the Eancashire (England) 
Veterinary Medical Association has passed a resolution giving it 
as the sense of that organization that the docking of horses is a 
necessary operation. Taking that resolution literally, and for 
the meaning that its frequent quotation is intended to convey, 
we can arrive at no other conclnsion than that the members 
present at the meeting at which the resolution was adopted 
were of the opinion that the removal of a healthy horse’s healthy 
tail is a necessity. Not having read the discussion which led 
intelligent, scientific veterinarians to record their votes in favor 
of such an absurd and inhnmane resolution, we are loth to in¬ 
dulge in harsh criticism of onr fellow-veterinarians ; but we are 
very anxious, for the good name of our beloved profession, that 
the association which is thus apparently maligned shall start a 
counter-paragraph that shall more vigorously and emphatically 
deny the truth or authenticity of the allegations than it has 
been promulgated through the press. It does not affect the 
question one iota to explain the resolution as meaning that the 
demands of the public are so strenuous that they are irresistible 
and are such as virtually to compel a veterinarian to perform 
this operation, because it strikes an owner’s fancy to have his 
horse’s graceful caudal appendage abbreviated. Nor for the rea¬ 
son that men outside of the profession so successfully execute 
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