The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-03-30
ARE SHEEP OWNERS CRUEL?
A Massachusetts Artist Says They
Are.
SO DOES STATE AGENT PERRY OF
OUR OWN SOCIETY.

Ha1f Million Maine Sheep Subjected to
Cruel Treatment Every Spring-sheared
Too Early, They Chill and Perish in
the Cold yvinds-The Society for the
Protection of Animals May Take the
Matter Up.
The regular monthly meeting of the
Maine State Society for the Protection of
Animals will be held today; and the an
nual meeting April 9th, week later.
Either today or at the next weeks meet
ing a subject of considerable interest to
the people of this state will be brought
up. Mrs. Cavazza, corresponding secre-
tary of the Maine society, received
not long ago from Mrs. Isabella c.
Barrowes of Boston, one Of the Massa-
chusetts Society, a letter calling attention
to the treatment of sheep by the farmers
complaint is the statement of Mr.. ]. ].
Enneking, an artist who came to Maine
in the sheepwashing time for the purpose
of finding subjects for a painting. Mr..
Ennel1ing says that the Maine farmers
generally wash and shear their sheep as
early as the tenth or fifteenth of May, and
sometimes by the first of April, or even
earlier. 81 hunted all over a section of
country on the Kennebec and in New
Hampshire, he says, sbut I found it
was the same. The wool agents were
round making bids and bargains early,
and they were very anxious to have the
wool as clean as possible. A great deal
gravel gets into the wool after the sheep
are let out and allowed to run about.
And when they are first let out in the
spring they have so much wool on their
backs that they go to the trees and stone
walls and rub it off, so that what they
lose is quite an item. The washing is
also quite an item. In regard to my ex-
perience about the brutality Of the farm
ers, it is
Not Intentional Brutality.
They do not know how brutal they are"
Boston artist interviewed some of the
farmers on the subject. A farmer said
''that in that school district they had lost
over a hundred lambs. He said they
froze to death by being exposed to the
weather, that the sheep suffered if they
were left out after they had been sheared.
He said they had consumption and many
of the sheep that really had consumption
were sold to butchers. Many farmers
sell sheep as soon as they begin to cough,
so it is not always safe in spring to eat
mutton Another farmer said: "When
we cut the wool so early me lose many
sheep. Host three sheep in the last cold
snap and my neighbor hauled twenty
eight from the field and saved probably
only half Of them. If they had not been
resuscitated every one would have been
dead by morning." Some farmers said
they got better price for the wool by
shearing early-enough better price to
pay for losing some lambs. The artist
says that these men with whom he talked
toned to send
Money to the Heather.
The artist also criticizes habit among
many Maine farmers of driving their
horses to the church Sundays and leaving
them to stand unblanketed during the
services. Maine barns are also often
badly built, he says, admitting draughts
dangerous to the health Of animals.
Mr.. e. N. Perry, the agent for the
Maine society, tells PRESS reporter that
from such investigation as he has been
able to make, he believes Mr.. Enneking's
charges to be substantially true. "There
are" says Mr.. Perry, tower five hundred
thousand sheep owned in Maine, and
among them there must be much suffer-
ing on account Of early shearing and not
having proper care after being sheared."
It would be within the power of the
Maine Society for the Protection of Ami
mails to send Mr.. Perry throughout the
state to prosecute early sheep shearers
under the legislative act passed in 1891.
The agent of the society has a commits.
sion which gives him, in this matter,
equal power with sheriff in any county.
The sheep of Maine are largely owned
in the central and eastern part of the
state, along the coast and on the islands
being some of the most numerous f1ocks.
The MICAH Auxiliary.
At the annual meeting of the Portland