The San Francisco call., 1896-04-07
If the Chasing of Hares Is Pre-.
vented, the Gun and Rod
Must Also Go.
SACRAMENTO CLUB TO MEET.
Gauntlet Thrown Down to the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals.

SACRAMENTO, CAL, April 6.-The
declaration of Secretary Holbrook that he
would try to put stop to coursing, on the
ground that it was violation of the laws
OF the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals, has not by any means met
the approval OF the members and officials
OF the Sacramento Coursing Club, and they
express their opinion of his intentions in
very plain language. Frank Christofelt
president of the club, said to-day:
II am at loss to see how any one can
be so foolish as to claim that coursing is
cruel sport, especially when it is COM
pared with any of the other lines of out
door amusements. The fisherman i'm
pales live worm or minnow on his hook
and drags a fish into his boat; he
tears the hook out of its mouth, often
dragging the entrails with it. if the fish
happens to have swallowed the hook;
then he throws the fish into the boat, to
thrash its life away and die in agony.
The hunter in the mountains gets snap
shot at deer and cripples it; the animal
escapes into the nnderbrush and slowly
dies, perhaps from starvation.
1.-THE crack shot at the trap wounds a
pigeon perhaps with but one grain of shot,
and then to save his score he slowly crawls
onto the suffering bird and clutches it,
bringing 1t alive to the judges to prove
that at least one grain of shot has hit it.
I'm coursing, the dog runs up on the
hare, tosses it into the air, gives one snap
and its life is ended. A hare is an &C.
knowledged pest and is destroyed at all
times by the farmers, whose products
they destroy. The fact is that if
coursing is to be stopped on the
ground of cruelty, then must all
other sport cease, for in my opinion cours-
ing is the least cruel of all. Did it ever
strike you that there was never any crv
heard against coursing until the establish
ment OF the new coursing park in San
Franciscoa This park will simply do
away with the grounds at Newark, as it
can be easily reached by streetcar, while
the other can be reached only by
one early train. Strange, is it not, that
since the establishment OF those new
grounds member of the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
should have suddenly discovered that a
sport that has been carried on for at least
1900 years without murmur is cruel?
1--WE shall hold a coursing match next
Sunday, and Mr.. Holbrook can then have
a chance to put stop to the chasing of
hares in Sacramento county by the dogs
belonging to the members of the Sacra-
mento Coursing Club. if he so desires"
Henry Devlne, secretary of the club,
said: "Courslng in my opinion Is by no
means cruel sport, for the animal, when
caught by the dogs, is in almost every case
killed instantly. Even should the dog
miss his snap in the first instance and
catch the animal by the leg the second dog
snaps it through the back the next in
slant and ends it's life.
son the other hand, if a sportsman
wounds q hare it runs away and dies a
lingering death. Yet how many men out
with gun but will shoot at hare when
it jumps up, even though he does not care
to carry it home for food? All sport is
more or less cruel
"The horseman who in a close race down
the stretch beats his horse in the hopes of
winning even by a hair is cruel, yet for
ages this has been done and there has
never been murmur. The marksman at
the trap who wounds his bird and leaves
it to slowly bleed to death is cruel.
'In fact all sport may be considered
cruel, but the least cruel OF all Is cOursing.
We do not beat our dogs to make them
run, and they can stop if they tire. If the
dog catches. he kills, and no manned ami
mails are left to die a lingering DEATH"
Maurice Sheehan, the treasurer of the
club, said he understood that Holbrook's
objections were confined to coursing in
parks. Sheehan gave as his opinion that
this was even more merciful than coursing
on the plains, for the reason that the hare
had chance to escape through the holes in
the fence provided for that purpose, while
on the plains there we're no hiding places
or barriers that could be passed by the
hare and not by the dog.
Mr.. Shehan believes that Secretary Hol-
brook has undertaken big job when he
determined to stop courslng matches. If
coursing is stopped on the ground of cru
city to animals the shotgun and the fish
II