The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-06-08
Henry Bergh's Exhibit at the Cen.
tenBial.


AT the SCUM end of the Main Exhibi
ton Building there is a display occupy
ing very little space, but nevertheless of
great interest 1t is the exhibit of the
New York Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty TO Animals, under the manage
ment of the widely and frequently
derided Henry Brrgh. There is a case
full OF clubs and heavy whips which have
been used by men arrested for cruelty to
their horses or other beasts of burden,
and some of them are weapons capable of
dealing the heaviest kind of blows. Cart
stakes, barrel-staves, fence palings, load
ed whips, and the like, are there; and
each bears label giving the name of the
man who used it, and the punishment de
creed to him. There are ho0fs which
have been torn from horses by the street
railway tracks, and there are diseased
hoofs that have been rendered so by the
salt which the companies put on the tracks
in winter to melt away the snow. Sew
eral things are on exhibition showing the
efficiency of the Society in breaking
up dog-tights, chckenfights, pigeon
matches and other cruel sports; and
some of them are positively sickening. \
pair of chickens, stuffed and preserved
with their gatfs on, and all torn and
bloody, just as they were taken from the
pit where the" fancy were looking on at
the battle, are in a glass case; and near
them is the stuffed skin of bulldog res
cued from Water street pit, where he
was fighting with another dog. Several
illustrations of cruelty to animals are
framed and hung on the walls.
Of course, every one will say that it is
only the ignorant and uneducated who are
cruel. Don't be so fast about your opin.
ions, and reserve your opinion till you
have seen Mr. Bergh's collection. There are
samples here 6fthe spur-bit which is used
to give activity to stylish horses on
probably elsewhere. 1t is a circle of
thick leather at each end of the bit, and
the inside of the leather is studded with
sharp teeth. like those of a curry comb.
As the rein is tightly drawn, these teeth
press against the horses mouth at the
corners, and drive him wild with pain, so
that he prances and "shows off," to the
supreme delight of the owner or driver
Great numbers of these instruments of
refined torture have been taken from the
heads Of horses on the fashionable ave
nues of New York by the agents of Mr..
Bergh. geon-shooting has been one of
the sports which the Society has endeav-
ored to stop, and somebody has invented
metal gyro-pigeon," which initiates
the motion of a bird, and can be brought
down by shooting in the same way, and
without giving pain. Samples of this
metallic pigeon are exhibited, and l be-
lieve it has the approval of several men
skilled in the art of shooting. OF course
it will be hard to convince the famous
shots of the brutality of their amusement,
and some of them will deliver elaborate
way of killing a pigeon is to shoot him
This might be so if the bird were instant
ly killed, but everybody who has any
with pigeon matches knows
that great many birds fly tout of
bounds" and are left to die, or they fly |
away slightly wounded and die or recover |
as best they may.
Photographs are given of horses COW
cred with sores. or with their limbs twist |
ed out of position and, in nearly every
instance, the beasts were found working
in carts or bearing burdens There are
pictures of COWS so diseased that they
were held up by sings to be MIXED, and
he milk thus obtained is regularly sold
o customers. The process OF carrying
owls by the legs is illustrated, and also
he more humane method of transporting
hem in baskets. There are different
orms of brides and bits for horses; and
he gentleness of the one kind and torture
If another are shown by means of dia-
grams. Altogether, the exhibition given
~ the society cannot fail to have good
fleet; it is, believe, the first of the kind
ver presented al Worlds Fair. Let us
lope earnestly it will not be the last; or,