The San Francisco call., 1896-03-08
Though "The Call" Exposed
the Cruelty the Authorities
Have Not Acted.
OVER FORTY HAVE PERIsHED.
Rancher Canty Says He Will Let
All Starve if He Is Not Paid
for Their Food.

MODESTO, Call, March 7.-Despite the
exposure in THE CALL ten days ago of the
horrible cruelty to band of 300 horses be-
longing to "Whitehat" McCarty, the San
Francisco turfman, and pastured on the
J. NJ. Canty ranch, not morsel OF food
has yet been given the animals,
and the authorities have taken no ac-
ton. The case is one that would ap-
peal to the better instincts of even an
Indian. The horses-all of them thor
oughbreds and some very valuable-are
dying at the rate of six or eight day. Over
forty have already perished from starva-
ton, and the rest, gaunt and staggering,
will probably never fully recover from
their present condition.
Canty absolutely refuses to turn the ami
mails into better pasture until he has
been paid for feeding them. The field in
which they are now confined is totally de-
void of grass, and the roots of weeds and
herbage have been paved up and eaten by
the famished beasts. Many of them, still
living but unable to keep their feet, lie
upon the ground suffering agonies of which
they have not voice to complain; and yet
Canty, fearing suit at law, will not al
low them to be shot. Canty has. however,
yielded point, and says he will allow Nc
Carly to remove the horses if he does so at
once. The rancher had been urged to turn
them loose, but this he steadily refused to
do. He was renting pasture for the
money there was in it, and when the
money was not forthcoming few dying
horses would not stand in the way of his
securing what was due him. Said Canty
to-day:
II took in these horses and had an ex-
press agreement that the pasturage bill
would be paid in advance every month.
Only one payment was made. l notified
McCarty, and even went to San Fran
cisco and told him he must pay or take
the stock. He promised, but failed to do
so. 1 notified him again, and Assembly
man Richards notified him, but no money
came. 1 knew the stock was mortgaged
to McCarty's son and I had no security.
Pasturing stock is part of my business,
and refused to move the stock into an
other pasture because cannot feed Nc
Carty's or anyone else's for nothing. All
the feed was eaten off the land and about
forty horses died, and still there came no
money from McCarty. Two hundred
and ninety-five animals remained with
nothing to eat. If he will take them away
1 will not hinder him, if he does so imme-
diately. Some of these horses are as fine
bred as any in the United States, but
positively won't feed them under the cir
cumstances."
It is said that District Attorney Full
kerth and Sheriff Purvis have been inves-
tigating the case, and that the former has
at last reached the determination that
somebody will be prosecuted in the crimi-
nal courts if the thoroughbreds are not fed.
He intimates that that somebody will
be 'sWhitehat" McCarty. The friends of
the turfman cannot see the justice of a
prosecution against him rather than Canty.
That the horses have been starving has
been due to his inability, they say. to
raise the money with which to pay for
their feed. They declare that Canty has
pasture land on his island ranch, between
Laird Slough and Grayson Bridge, where
grass ankle deep is going to waste; that
the rancher could have held the band for
their feed and compelled McCarty to pay
him before taking them away, which
the horsemau would have done as soon as
he could secure the money; but that, in
stead, Canty allowed them to starve to
death, one by one.
Secretary Hobrook of the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is urg-
ing the District Attorney to act, and if the
horses are not either removed from the
ranch or turned into a pasture that is not
barren prosecution may follow. People
who have been shocked by the almost
fiendish cruelty fear that the last horses
bones will be bleaching in the sun before
anything is done.