1609.] 
To speak gravely, my Lords, I maintain, 
that human idleness ought not to be 
permitted, by the laws of enlightened 
man, to tax for nothing, beyond the pow- 
ers which God has given them, the ani- 
mals which his benevolence has created 
for our assistance. - 
But another abuse exists, not less 
frequent, and much more shocking, be- 
cause committed under the deliberate 
calculation of intolerable avarice. Tal- 
lude to the practice of buying up horses, 
when past their strength, from old age or 
disease, upon the computation ([ mean - 
to speak literally) of how many days tor- 
ture and oppression they are capable of 
living under, so as to return a profit with 
the addition of the flesh and skin, when 
brought to one of the numerous houses 
appropriated for the slaughter of horses. 
{f this practice only extended to carry- 
ing on the fair work of horses to the 
very latest period of labour, Instead of 
destroying them when old. or disabled, I 
should approve, instead of condemning 
it. But it is most notorious, that with the 
value of such animals,-all care of them is 
generally at an end, and you:see them (I 
speak literally, and of asystematic abuse) 
sinking and dying under loads, which no 
man living would have set the same horse 
to when im the meridian of his strength 
and youth. 
This horrid abuse, my Lords, which 
appears at first view to be incapable of 
aggravation, is nevertheless most shock- 
ingly aggravated, when the period ‘ar- 
rives at which one would think cruelty 
must necessarily cease, when exhausted 
nature is ready to bestow the deliverance 
ofdeath. But even then’a new and most 
atrocious system of torture commences, 
of which, my Lords, | could myself be a 
witness i) your committee, as it was 
proved to:my own perfect satisfaction, 
and that of my friend Mr. Jekyll, upon 
the information of a worthy magistrate, 
who called our attention to the abuse, 
But, perhaps, my Lords, I shall better 
describe it, as it will at the same time 
afford an additional proof of these hide- 
ous practices, and of their existence at 
this hour, by reading a letter which I 
received but two days ago, the facts of 
which I am ready to bring in proof be- 
fore your Lordships. 
Here Lord Erkine read an extraét from 
@ letter, which stated— , 
** A very general practice of buying 
ep horses still alive, but not capable 
ef being even further abused by any 
m 
improve the breed of that nobie and use< 
Lord Erskine’s Speech on Cruelty to Animals. 561 
kind 6f labour. ‘These’ horses, it ap- 
peared, were carried in great numbers 
to slaughter-houses, but not killed ar 
once for their flesh and skins, but. left 
without sustenance, and literally starved 
to death, that the market might be 
gradually fed ;—the poor animals, in the 
mean time, being reduced to eat their 
own dung, and frequently gnawing one 
another’smanes in theagonies of hunger. t 
Can there be a doubt, my Lords, that 
all such shocking practices should be con- 
sidered and punished as misdemeanors ? 
Ifere again it may be said chat the Bill, 
5 : , 
“in this part of it, will mvest magistrates 
with a novel and dangerous discretion, 
I am not yet arrived at that part of the 
case, though I am fast approaching it; 
when f do, I pledge myself without fear 
to maintain the contrary, to the satise 
faction of every one of your Lordships, 
more especially imcluding the learned 
Lords of the Ilouse.. No less frequent 
and wicked an abuse, is the manifest 
overloading of carriages and animals: of 
burthen, particularly asses; and as far 
as this poor animal is unjustly considered 
an emblem of stupidity, the owners who 
thus oppress him are the greater asses 
of the two. The same may be said of 
keeping animals without. adequate food 
to support their strength, or even’ their 
existence—this frequently happens to- 
beasts impounded for trespasses; 1 have 
had complaints of this abuse: fiom all 
parts of the country. The notice to the 
owner is ‘seldom served, and thus the 
poor innocent animal is left’to starve in 
the pound. As‘far asan animal is cone 
sidered merely as property, this may be 
all very well, and the owner must find 
him out at his peril;: but when the ani- 
mal is looked ta upon the princivle of 
this Bill, the impounder ought to: feed 
him, and charge it to the owner as part 
of the damages. A 
Only one other offence remains, which 
I think it necessary to advert to, which 
itis difficult sufficiently to expose and 
stigmatize, from the impudence with 
which it.is every day committed; as if 
the perpetrators of this kind of -wicked- 
ness were engaged in something extremely 
entertaining and innocent, if not merita. 
rious. I allude to those extravagant bets 
for trying the strength and indurance of 
horses ; not those animating races, proper- 
ly so called, which the horse really enjoys, 
and which, though wndoubtedly attended 
with collateral evils, has tended greatly to 
Tel 
