Morning journal and courier., 1890-09-11
Cattle at Sea.


 We have more than once drawn atten- ton to the abominable horrors which exist in connection with the import of live cat tie into this country, and the pamphlet just issued by Mir. Samuel Plimsoll shows that We have in no way exaggerated the cruelty of this atrocious traffic. Mir Plim- soil is not the coolest of reasoners, and We are willing to allow that his statements may be somewhat colored by the natural indignation resulting from n personal ac- quaintance with the details of the trade. But facts land pho;ogmphs) do not lie: and there are enough of both in Mir. Plimsoll's brochure to show the impertive necessity for prompt and stringent legislation on the subject. To carry live cattle on long ocean voyage is an operation which in any case involves a certain amount of hardship and suffering, even when the most fayora- ble and humane arrangements are made for their comfort and safety; but in the majority of cattle ships there is to be wit dessed an amount of misery and torture, of death and disease-not for the beasts alone-which is truly appalling to con template. It must be recollected that the trade does not pay unless it is conducted on an extensive scale, and unless large number of animals can be brought over each voyage. To fulfill these conditions the floating cattle-shed has to be packed from end to end with as many beasts as | can, by any manner of possibility, be crammcd into it. It is not enough that l the hold of the steamer is filled with the oxen, and that they are loaded on stages, one tier above the other, almost like her a a+ar- rasr-+ # sk,.a deck is roofed in with fiimsy woodwork, and converted into rows of cattle-pens. The beasts are packed tightly together, with no room to move, to change their po- l sition. or even to lie down.
 During the whole of a voyage, lasting | perhaps fourteen days or three weeks, the wretched brutes have to remain on their | legs, stacked against each other, and tossed l from side to side by the motion of the yes sel. If an animal lies down he does not rise again, for the life is speedily trampled out of him by his companions, and there fore-it sounds incredible, but it appears to be true-the drovers are employed dur | ing the whole of the voyage in goading, bludgeoning and torturing the wretched animals, in order to keep them on their legs. Even in fine weather. when it is possible to provide them with food and
 water, the suffering of the animals is in
 tolerable; in storm, when the matches are battened down, and the drovers cannot
 go among them, their condition is such as
 imagination can hardly conceive. In the
 case of one vessel which experienced fouI
 days of very heavy weather in the Allan
 tic, we are told that the staging on which
 the animals stood broke down, and three
 hundred maddened animals were cast, in
 one believing, fighting, sweltering heap,
 to the bottom of the vessel, where they
 gored and trampled each other to death
 Instances are now on record of fifty, one
 hundred, two hundred, and even three
 hundred dead bodies of animals being
 thrown overheard at time. One vessel
 landed only fourteen cattle out of three
 hundred and sixty; another, sixteen out
 of two hundred and seventy-six; third
 thirty-three out of six hundred and eigh
 ty. There was, probably, not one of thes,
 animals which did not die slow death b,
 torture; for, as a crowning abominatioI
 of the system, it seems that the insuranc, } companies will only pay compensation fol animals which die natural death. Therefore, if beast has its legs or it' back broken, its horns torn of, or its body ripped and gored, it if dragged out in ago ny on the deck before 1t is cast overheard We are not surprised to learn that a sail or seldom ships more than once in cattle | steamer, if he can get berth in another | ship. The loss of the steamship Erin ir the early part of the present year has done something to bring home to the public mind the dangers which are run in thu !. course of this traffic. But, indeed, thu trade as carried on by many fortunatel, not by alD ship-owners is, from its yer, s nature, exceedingly dangerous. The cat tie steamer, which has to be loaded witt seven or eight hundred head of live oxen must almost necessarily carry deck cargo 7 Huge and crazy timber structures are, a we have said, built upon the decks, save g ral feet above the bulwarks. The nayiga g ton of the vessel is impeded, the davit l and the ifeboats are rendered useless, tn r accommodation for the crew is diminished l the ship is rendered crank and unseawor Y thy, and her stability impaired, by thi b load of shifting live freight carried abov V the center of gravity. The ship has to D | navigated-to the great danger of the sail ; orsefrom an insecure false deck, forme'
 by the fiimsy plank roofing of the she'd "a The worst of it all is that this trafi fl might be suppressed without infiicting los n on more than @ comparatively small nun