The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-05-17
Horses Suffering in War.

When we read of brilliant cavalry
charges in war, we are. apt to be car
rier away by the spell of battle ex-
citement. And when we read in the
special kilograms that the British
government has purchased a large
number Of American horses. for use in
South Africa we are apt to think of
nothing but the commercial side Of
the transaction. Yet to one who has
had the actual scenes Of warfare per-
sented to his mental vision there a.
be few things more pathetic than the
slaughter of horses. A man joins the
army with his eyes open. He knows
full we'll that he is embracing a muir
derous profession. He knows that it
is his business to kill, and, of curse,
he takes the chances of being killed
himself. When two men go out to
fight a duel, they are on even terms.
Each is bent on killing the other, and
so neither has any ground of COM
plant if he is badly manned, or rem
dered defective for life.
But a horse is not a fighting ami
NAL. It does not enlist for battle. 1t
knows nothing of the merits of a
cause. It cannot take sides. Yet it
is driven into battle, is killed or
cruelty MANNED; is made to suffer for
no wrong that it has ever done any
one. The following is the picture of
the awful suffering of horses as pre-
scented by correspondents in South
Africa:
But of all the pitiful, heartrending
sights l have eve seen nome has com
pared to this view of hundrends upon
hundreds Of dead and dying horses
on this 100 miles of wars promenade.
The poor beasts had done nj man any
harm-in fact, each one had been a
mans r~eliance-and to see them
shattered by shell and then ripped
open bp vultures often before they
were dead, vas enough to snap the
tenderest chords in ones breast. They
had not deserved and could not un.
derstand their horrible i'll luck. For
some reason, hundreds had dragged
themselves to the main road, and then
had died either in the track OF the
wagons or by it's side. But the worst
horror was to come when approached
close upon the last battlefield, only
"a hours after the fight at Dreifontein.
On this field not nearly all the horses
were yet dead. On the contrary, as
| came up beside the PROSTATE body
of a beautiful steed it would slowly
and painfully lift it's head, and turn
upon me a pair Of the most pleading.
woe-stricken eyes, full of a hunger to
know what l could do for it. All l
could do was to drive on, for l had no
firearms, even for my own protection,
deep in an enemy's country, where we
had put no single armed man to guard
the route of our supplies and rein
forcements. My companion used to
turn and look back at these dying
horses, only to find that they were
still straining their sad eyes after the
cart. Then ne would say, He is look
ing at us yet; oh, it makes me i'll;
look, he is staring at us like a guilty
conscience. What can we do? wish
we did not have to see such things
More pathetic than the sight of the
dead horses was the sight OF the liv-
ing ones. There were horses that
had been hit, horses that had been
broken down with overwork, and I'M
%derfeeding, horses with hideous sad
die sores hidden by clustering mounds
of flies, horses abandoned for every
conceivable defect; some horses for
whom death had loosened their riders
control, big English horses, unshod
Boer ponies, most of them with hip
bones that projected SO far as to sug-
gest ~dislocation; they were wander
ing about, helpless, forlorn, abandon.
ed creatures, who looked at you
obviously, as though they feared you
were bringing them more of glorious
warfare; and then, seeing you pass,
turned l~istlessly away, hanging down
their heads. 4 .
Where men will go to var with one
another it would seem that they
should be made to stand all the suffer.
ing. Perhaps if this were the result,
and they knew that they would re-
ceive no adventious aid they would
not be in such a hurry to rush into
war. The South African conflict has
slain horses by tens of thousands. Un
less they are acclimated they are
stricken down. This slaughter of the
noblest animals in this wanton and
wholesale way can not be contem-
$1,000 s1~. Go@1so,. ~f 1,o,rsor