Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-08-07
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

The rarest quality ia L,tHaa beings = huaisaiig.
Most people ought To be called ia-human beings,
Tor most people are cruel. They may b. Kind -
their wives, children, servants, aud friends, bat
they are unllind to 4 thousand other things. The
cruelest Of all creatures are boys, But their
cruelty proceeds from thoughtlessness They
viii hamstring poor horse grazing on charitable
fields, knock the horns from cow. pierce do.
mesticated pigeons with spiked arrows, hang
cats, shoot dogs, rob birds nests ride horses 10
death, or put out the eyes Of human beings with
the shot thrown from their whalebones, without
any computations OF conscience.
But il is not with boys that we are dealing II
i with men and women. Oh! the cruelty that
is inflicted, the suffering that is endured every
day Of the year. We leave ont murders, man
slaughters, assaults and batteries, rapes, arsons,
burglaries, cheats, .gi4dlings, frauds. and impo-
sitions, perpetrated IN this world. We viii con
slider only the cruelties inflicted b. human, or
rather inhuman beings, ON inferior animals In
order to form correct idea of these crueltes, il
is necessary to attend market, and there are
markets in every town. Water-melons, peaches,
apples, pears, and all other kinds Of fruit. and
vegetables, are inanimate When plucked from
the parent tree or vine, ii makes but little differ
ence how they are carried 10 or from market.
They suffer no pain. But animals and fowls are
as exquistey alive to pain as men or women, and
cruel people seem to endeavor to intlict as much
as is possible on them.
| Look at the great majority of the market
horses. They are SO pitably poor that the sun
almost shines through them. Yet day after day,
and night after night, they forced to drag
heavily loaded carts TO and from the city As if
fearful that the load will be two light, robust
men, fat women, and several children, are super
added to the load
| As to the lambs, and the pigs, and the calves.
| They are most cruelty tied and thrown down
into tie bottom of tho carts TO suffer-anost 10
die. The turkeys, ducks, geese, and chickens
are oflentimes tightly tied, and left TO linger in
slow misery. As if this were not cruel enough,
when sold, they are carried along the streets with
their heads hanging down and dragging the pave
ment at every step.
1t is bad enough to have to kill these creatures,
in order to provide ourselves with food, and
therefore they ought to be kindly treated, until
il becomes necessary for the butcher to slaughter
the animals, or the cook Chat common domestic
executioner) to wiring off the heads of the fowls.
But the animal, perhaps, that has the hardest
time Of il is the horse-.he! hack horse particu-
larly. The worst of all horse-masters are free
negroes. Scarcely one out of a dozen takes any
care of his animals. Without half feeding them
they work them day and night.
Cruelty to animals ought to be severely pun
ished. Ii ought, too, to be the law everywhere,
that when useful animals fall into the hands Of
cruel owners, who beat them numerically, and
half starve them, they shall be taken by public
officers, sold, aud the proceeds appropriated to
public purposes.