Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-03-13
DOCKING HORS ES.
Outrageous Custom Denounced IN
Proper Fashion.

The letter OF your Virginia cor
respondent on hOrsetal docking, says
a writer in the Baltimore sun ue-
serves more than passing Hotice lol
the reason it is a specious plea oheIeu
in justification OF an abomlnaoIe anu
cruel practical fashionable fad. Inc
correspondent defense OF this speclai
cruelty is on a par with the excuse
offered for clipping horses oI thell
hair-that the horses belonging TO the
rich are we'll fed and we'll groOmed'
hence do not feel the necessity OF the
coat that nature has provided them
with for their protection against the
chill blasts of winter. The poor man
horse-that's another thing.
Happily our sportsmen are not no"
engaged in bull-baiting, bear-oaluns'
badser-dyawing and the cruel sports
OF our grandfathers. The cruelty OF
years ago was thought just IS neces-
s&Iy at that time for the enjoyment OF
life as are tail-doCking, clipping ana
other cruel fads now. Enlightened
public opinion has stamped out me
brutalities of other days, and when
public opinion is educated up 10 the
unnecessary misery inflicted on the
horse that special brutality Will go
and with it the spur of the gallant
trooper, the hook EN- snivey, out-all-
night knight whose business is punch
ing holes through rings and spur lac
Grating his horses sides, hunting
foxes and aniseed bags trail, OF winch
fOXhunting a writer in the Westmn-
ster Review says: 1T could not be
more fla5rantly and miserably UNI
manly and unwomanly for CROWD of
men and women to sally forth in per-
feet security themselves, armed and
mounted with every advantage, power
and skill on their side, to do to death
with dogs some poor, skulkin9. terri
fed little habitant of WoodsidC or
hedgerow-a thing SO utterly desplc-
bale, so udicrous and palpably mean.
Ouida, the novelist, in the Nineteenth
Century Magazine, asks this question
Then how odious to the horse must
be the forcing of the bit into his mouth
and the headstall over his ears. with
out speaking of the fortunes OF the
spur, singing of the hash, the dread
fuI weight upon the spine from which
the riding horse suffers, and the dread
fQl strain upon the 4oins and witheTS to
W hjch the driving horse Is unneCes-
saily condemned the high check rein
TO pull the horses head into position of
torture, and ask yourself if in common
pity and justice that life should not be
slleviated and frightened as is possible
TO make IT
This description taken from the
same writer Will more than fit those
who admire dUck-tailed horses and
practice that brutality He likes
animals. On dear me. yes-poor
creatures. Why not?-but it does not
disturb him frat the horse in the
Ransom cab Which he has called to
take him to the city has wealS all over
his lOihS and bit that fills his mouth
with blood and foam; writes his agent
30 have the young cattle dshorned and
buys ais a present for his daughter a
card case made from a shell Of tor
uo1se which was roasted alive. turned
on it's back on the fire to give a ruddy
glow to its shelr"
The vicious horse is made so by
cruel treatment docking the horses
ta is ;tne retirement of the cruelty
only surpassed by denuding the morse
of his hairy robe and sending him out
to ,5hiver in the cold blasts of winter.
The legislature owes it to this com
mumity to protect it from the senseless
fads of the stock farm and should.
without delay, pass the bill offered by
the Society," for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals against docking
horses tails, amended to read: All
cruet1y. docking Or mutilating. shay
ing o@r clipping hair, reaching names.
.etc.