Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-07-01

Mr.. Henry Bergh stands TO the animals in
the relation of the undertaken to humanity in
general. His business is furnished by the
misfortunes of others but, unlike the under
taker, whose only anxiety is to see us taken
of" and buried the dumb animals owe him
a debt in ameliorating their sufferings which
they can never repay. The character of Mr..
Bergh's work is shown by his paper on THE
Cost of Cruelty" in the July North American
Review, in which he points out the loss to
the country from the methods of transport
ing cattle by the railroads from the West to
the East The railroads refuse to reform the
present over-crowding, and the result is that,
according to an estimate made in 1872, the
"shrinkage" from death and irritation was
vhriously estimated at from 4 to per cent
1t was found that, on the arrival at the AL
bany stockyards, the average loss of weight
on each OK was 120 pounds, and that the sum
total of loss for the stock transported to
Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New
York, Albany, Providence and Boston for
that year was 100 OBS $50 pounds starved,
crushed, goaded and joted out of the cattle.
The loss on sheep and hogs by the same sort
OF transportation, according to the drovers'
estimate for the same time, was fifteen pounds
a head. The estimate Of the loss in money
for that year on four articles of commerce,
tnbtEluB Oui1 StNtn VI uuE ulhThtls, WIS gtft
374, 712. All this exhibit of cruelty and
waste was caused in 1872 by the deliberate
refusal of the great railroads to transport
them in proper manner. This would seem
to be state of things that ought not to be al
lowed, but it must be added that large pro-
portion of the decomposing bodies of the cat
tie killed on the journey is converted into hui
man food. Mr.. Bergh's description of the
way in which the carrying is at present con-
Quoted must be given in his own forcible
words From the moment when the wretch
ed animals are, by the force of blows, driven
into the torture pens that are to serve as We
hicles to convey them to the abattoirs in the
East, they know no rest Seldom is ade-
quate provision made for supplying them
with food and water. Hardly q
cattle-train arrives but it presents cases Of
painful death. Horned cattle are found ly.
ing on the floors, their limbs crushed, some.
times their bodies hattened out by the tramp.
ing of their fellows in misfortune while
among the smaller animals-sheep and swine
the mortality from overcrowding, neglect
aud inhumanity is greater still" Senator
Mcpherson of New Jersey, exposing the pc
cuniary losses and the danger to the public
health from this method of transportation
with an opportunity for observation second
to none in this country, declared in 1879 thai
inc nVe STOCK trathc is one long and unln
terrupted line of suffering from the West t.
the East" The railroad lobby is SO power
full at Washington that no adequate law seemi
to be attainable, and Mr. Bergh presents hi
facts and figures, more eloquent than words
in the hope that the public at large will de
mand change. The present loss to tn,
owners of stock would appear sufficient tC
compel q change, if the public health were
left entirely out of view, and no man can tel
when he sits down to dinner before joint o
beef whether it comes from an OK killed b,
cruelty on the road or in decent fashion a
the abattoir