Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-13

To the Editor of The Evening Star
The article in last Fridays paper on
Justice to Birds" suggests a doubt in the
minds of some of your readers. We are
told that nearly 9O,GD bird stomachs have
been or are to be examined. and their con-
tents analysed. Assuming for a moment
that these birds we're humanely killed, are
the facts obtained worth the price? Be-
cause certain kinds of hawks and owls do
not touch poultry, will the farmer leave his
fowls unprotected. when hawks and owls
of other kinds destroy poultry every year?
Or is the farmer TO get out his field glass
every time an owl or a hawk appears. to
find out whether his fowls will be safe?
And are the different kinds SO clearly
marked that an "unscienti1ic" person can
tell them even with glass? Win scare
crows cease to be necessary in cornfields
because the scientists say that the corn
found in the stomachs of crows is waste
corn?
Granting that the hawks, and owls, and
crows, and king birds, are killed unneces-
sarily by unsclenrific' persons, it scarcely
seems consistent Tor scientists to say that
therefore, birds the victims of an un-
just persecution" Such death would be
heaven itself in comparison with the treat
ment scientists deal out to the creatures
that are so miserable as to fall into their
hands. If we have not been misinformed
by those who are in a position to know
birds in the Agricultural Department are
used-quick and acute, slow and torturing.
The scientist has no time to consider the
suffering Of animals" In his so-called
mobile thirst for knowledge" he will have
it, though he tortureS the nerves, and tears
out the hearts of living animals to get it.
And what is such knowledge worth when
it comes? The long list of failures in the
medical world. and The confession of "one
of the greatest scientists" Claude bernard,
and others, that after all the years of ex-
perimentation their hands are empty of
results, put to scorn any claim of this
kind that can be made.
Indeed, some of these scientists acknoWI-
edge that good for the human race is
altogether secondary affair. They want
to knoW, they must know" And what
is it they must know? Their own published
reports in Europe and America will tell
1t is, how long they can keep a dumb crea-
ture alive by artificial means while they
are torturing every organ and nerve; how
nearly they can cut, and burn and tear in
pieces any animal, and have it retain its
love for its young or for its human 60 tor
mentor; how long it will take an animal to
die in gradually heating oven, they
watching through glass sides the increas-
ing agony to the end.
The common people, without fear, chal-
ienge the whole scientific world to prove
that such knowledge is not debasing, de-
humanizing-in the end producing char
acters to be loathed by every one who
aspires to an ascending, ennoblng plane Of
existence. And the common people believe
tidt lioSe WHO torture QeteESeleSS ANIMALS
merely Ito know" will have to SETTLE some
time with just God, who loves the crea-
lures He has given into our care.
1t is nothing to the point to say "a mans
life is worth any number of animals" By
their own showing the connection between
scientific experiments and mans life is
secondary-in many cases remote and alb
soiutely out of the equation in thousands
upon thousands of others
If scientists and Psychologists wish to de-
grade themselves by such experiments
there is as yet, no, law to prevent them.
But proof is within reach of the public
when it is desired that any results obtained
are uncertain and misleading, and even so
are infinitesimal compared with the debas-
Ing of humanity, and the awful suffering
inflicted upon the helpless creatures God
has intruSted to our care. B.