(7)
of Cruelty to Animals if they insisted upon suffering animals being kept in the hospitals
attached to these dispensaries until they were in a fit and workable condition.
57. What a boon it would be to the poor suffering creatures in and around Calcutta
if the laws were amended so that the Calcutta branch of that admirable Society might
be enabled to send sick and lame animals to the Bengal Veterinary Institution for care and
treatment, until the poor beasts recovered, instead of inflicting a fine on the owners, which,
generally speaking, is really a further cruelty to the animals, who are made to suffer in conse-
quence, by either being worked at night or having their food curtailed, or perhaps both.
58. It is believed
that Mr. Lees, Secretary of the Society, has expressed a wish to send
the animals for treatment, and in a letter to the Chief Presidency Magistrate, Calcutta, dated
5th September 1894, he specially drew attention to the existence of the Bengal Veterinary
Institution and the facilities it afforded for receiving and treating sick and injured animals,
and confessed that the Society has felt that punishing a delinquent with a fine for working
an unfit animal does not protect the unfortunate animal from being used. The Institution
should be appointed an infirmary for the purposes of Act XI of 1890.
Glanders.
59. During the year under report no case of glanders was detected among the animals
assembled at the Sonepur, Barahpur (Shahabad) or Kalimpong
Fairs. Several cases of this disease in Calcutta have been
reported and inspected, in accordance with rules laid down in Act VIII of 1880, and the
animals have been destroyed, but these powers were not exercised beyond the Calcutta urban
and suburban limits. His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor has now extended this Act in
a Government Notification, No. 501 Medical, dated 6th February 1896, to the area occupied
by the Sonepur mela in the district of Saran during the annual continuance of that fair ;
also to the area occupied by the Kalimpong and Barahpur mêlas in the districts of Darjeeling
and Shahabad respectively during the annual continuance of those fairs.
60. When the districts are supplied with Veterinary Assistants there will be a proper
agency for the detection of this virulent disease, but until then it would be advisable only
to invest the Superintendent, Civil Veterinary Department, Bengal, the Assistant Superin-
tendent, Bengal Veterinary Institution, and the Veterinary Assistant with the Superintendent
with the powers of an Inspector under the Act, and they would also have the power of
certifying to the correctness of the diseases.
Supply of bulls and cattle-breeding.
61. The improvement of cattle is a very important subject in a country where every-
thing is dependent upon these animals for plough and draught
work, and just now the matter is being brought prominently
before the public. The supply of a better class of bulls will no doubt do much to improve
the physique, but unless the young stock are better fed, and the wretched specimens of
Brahmini bulls transferred from the herds to the municipal carts, the good results expected
from the importation of valuable bulls will be disappointing.
62. In my report last year it was suggested that some of the bulls in Bihar might
with advantage be transferred to Lower Bengal, where the cattle are very small. For this
purpose seventeen bulls have been obtained from Bihar and Shahabad, and have been
distributed as follows:-—
Two bulls to Chitpur Municipality.
Two do. to Birbhum district.
Two do. to District Board, Khulna.
One bull to Burdwan experimental farm.
One do. to a ward's estate in Chittagong.
One do. to a zamindar at Basanti.
Three bulls among the cows at Dum-Dum and Barasat.
Five remain for distribution.
63. Precaution was taken to obtain the opinion of His Highness the Maharaja of
Darbhanga and other influential native gentlemen as to whether there would be any
religious prejudice against the transfer of these bulls from one district to another, and it was
gratifying to learn that there was no reason why the animals should not be transported
if there was no harm intended them. These bulls are not large, but they are considerably
larger than the indigenous cattle of Lower Bengal and very much better bred. Though
comparatively small, these animals are of good physique and capable of much endurance. It
was with this idea that the experiment of transferring the Bihar-Brahmini bulls to this
part of Bengal has been tried. The prevailing idea seems to be that a cow should be mated
with a large bull, in order to obtain large well-grown stock. But this is very rarely the case,
because, even if the young animal is big at birth, the cow is not able to give nourishment
sufficient to satisfy a large growing calf.
64. Therefore the process of improvement must be gradual, and any experiment in
mating large bulls with small cows, in the hopes of breeding finer cattle, must end in
failure. It would be much better to employ slightly larger bulls, of good, sound, compact
build, than use sires of much larger breed.
65. I would further suggest that the smaller Brahmini bulls, which rove about theNorth-
West Provinces and Oudh, might, with much advantage, be transported to Bihar and the
adjoining districts. These bulls stand about 52 inches behind the hump and are despised on