Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-04-03

But passing over this feature,
whether pertinent or not, | wish to
protest against Mr.. Asshetons feeble
attempt to erect his own limited exper-
fence with a lot OF vicious horses into
the objective laws of all horsedom |
venture to say that this is the first
time that anyone has ever had the
hardihOd to advance such silly a rea-
son in defense OF horse-dOcking.
In the first place, as all know who
! have had any experience with horses, |
probably not one in 80 is given tOI
| throwing his tail over the reins. and
ia such a case he would do it only III
! ty-time-that is, for four or five
! months in the year But because enc
/ horse out of many is guilty of this
! Objectionable act Mr.. AsshetOn would
! have all horses locked. AS we'll say
/ because some men use their hands to
! kill their fellOWmen therefore all men
| should have their hands cut off, the
! difference being that, while many
mems lives would thereby be saved, in
the case of hoTse-dOcking not a single
! one would be spared; for it is the
| NbIl6SL IOuSCli6G W ody llldI ilOIStS
are made safer as drivers by docking
! Mr.. ASshetOn asks: Which is the
more valuable, the life OF human be
! ing or three inches OF horses tail?"
| Well, that would depend on whether
! the being was human; for a great
many beings sail under that title who
have no claim to it. ! have frequently
4 yUiGhpH VIII I - Cn-nallnH hlJDoo
! being abusing a horse, that the ami
NAL had the power to kick his tor
mentors brains out A few fOrcible
examples of this kind might prove a
| deterrent to other maIefactors.
But Mr.. AssbetOn is disingenuous
when he says that only three inches Of
| the horses tail are taken off, as the
almost universal practice is to cut it
off to within six or eight inches of the
| fundament whereby the animal is left
absolutely defenseless against tor
! menting insects Moreover, even if
| Mr.. Assheton take off only three
| inches, it is incOnceivable that that
would prevent the animal from switch
ing his tail over the reins
Space fOrbids my undertaking to fol
| low all Mr.. AsshetOn's communication
in defense of his barbaFouS practice
! He himself gives away his whole case
{ when. in answer to our contention that
the tailless horse is pOWerless to de
fend himself against flies, he says that
his horses tails grow out so long
that they had been locked. He there
| by admits nearly all our claims for the
horses protection.
| Mi Assheton attributes to us
| ''cranks," as he calls us, the idea that
| the horse suffers all the rest of his
days the torture he has had once to
endure the knife. This. of course is
a gratuitous assumption which, like
| most of his other assertions, he has
evolved out of his own consciousness.
l, for one, will admit that if the work
is skillfully done, the pain is mo-
mentary; and / will further admit,
with one reservation, that, as Mr.
Asshetdl says, sit is one of the quick
est operations performed on man
| (sicD or beast" 1t is, in fact, one OF
the least of the evils, although | can
not speak from experience, never hav-
ably Mr.. Assheton has, Judging from
his statement q quote his exact Ian
| guage). | am really curious to know
what kind of men inhabit cg'tain parts
| of the Old Dominion that they have to
be locked, presumably, to prevent
| them from cutting their monkey
| shines" Is it possible that HaeckeIs
| urmensch or homo alalus has at last
been found? If so, the Darwinian
| experts of Johns Hopkins University
better pack up their kits and at once
hurry off to study the animal in his
native habitat.
But joking aside. what real raison
d'etre is there for this Inhuman prac
tice of docking horses?
1t is nothing more than silly so
ciety fad imported from England,
| where there are said to be few or
none of the insects which torture the
tailless horse in this country. And
like all fads it has no substantial
foundation, as it adds nothing to the
horses usefulness and disfgures him
in the eyes of all who have any proper
| appreciation of artistic effects.