The Saint Paul globe., 1905-04-23
THEY TAKE CARE
y OF OLD HORSES
q TOW. Mass, April 15.-The Massa-
81 chusetts horse. old. spawned. sway

tCA AONs nldSS.s ApIH 10 N1dSSd-
~ chusetts horse. old. spawned. sway
backed, knock kneed, broken down,
has home. AS an object of charity he
has found at last some one to care for him
during his old days. He need no longer
depend upon the uncertain kindness of the
gypsy or the soap factory.
Red Acre farm, this charitable home for
horses, opened on May s. 1908, with one
old black horse. Others were soon added.
until in June there were fourteen horses
at the farm. During the present year the
average has been twelve.
Some of the horses have been sent by
their owners, others have been received
from humane persons by whom they were
bought or otherwise rescued from suffer-
ing or i'll treatment. Also during the win
ter many miserable creatures, old and in
curably i'll, have been purchased from junk
peddlers, farmers, and others by the Red
Acre farm agent. These have been merci-
fully killed either at the farm or, when
possible, wherever they have been found.
OF the 134 horses received at the farm,
seventy-eight were incurable sufferers and
have been killed.
The remainder have been restored by
rest and treatment to a good condition.
Some have been returned to their owners;
some have been loaned. No horses are
sold at the farm.
Stow, where the farm is situated, is
twenty-three miles west of Boston.
Red Acre farm is a typical Boston in
stitution. 1t is the sort of institution that
springs up in community where there Is
always a sincere regard for the comfort
of alley cats, cur dogs. homeless animals
of every description. The object Of the
horse charity is to provide shelter food.
and treatment, or release by death. for
horses that have been abused or over
worked. 1t affords a sort Of rest cure, q
country vacation IL you please, for old
family nags that have pulled phaetons for
a generation over the hilly roads of Massa-
chusetts.
1t provides a home for old favorites
where they may be pensioned and cared
for during their well earned rest and
leisurely old age. and finds trustworthy
homes and kind masters for such horses
as are fit for light work and whose best
condition is insured by such exercise.
The society does everything possible to
lessen the traffic in old and broken down
horses, with its attendant drugging, doc
toring," 'nerving," and other forms of
cruelty.
In Massachusetts there is a large traffic
in broken down, worn out, diseased, and
suffering horses. and jockeys of the most
degraded character make a precarious
Lowell. fourteen horses were sold by auc-
tion, the highest price paid for any one OF
them being $40. In one day, at one auc-
ton stable in Boston, ten horses were pur-
chased at prices ranging from So to 81. II
a horse can walk to the knacker's he may
be worth sS and the wretched animal is
often bought for 81 upon the chance that
he may be able to make the journey with
out dropping dead on the way On
Wednesdays and Saturdays (the sale
days. collection of feeble and dead lame
horses may sometimes be seen, after dark.
slowly and painfully making their way to
a certain rendering establishment situated
in the woods some six miles from Boston.
the last part Of the road being so steep
and stony as to tax the energies of a
sound horse. Sometimes they drop dead
before the journey is completed.
Often the men who deal in these horses
are able to put them of on ignorant pur-
| chasers at a price ten times their value,
and for this purpose they are doctored
dosed. stimulated, and disguised in all
the ways which rapacity and cruelty can
suggest. Not infrequently glandered
horses are sold In this manner To buy
them OF dealer is to encourage traffic in
tnern; the place to buy them Is I'm the
owners hands before they gravitate to a
jockey. and. II possible. in the country.
where the opportunities for cruelty are
vastly greater than they are in the city.
This work has been undertaken by Red
Acre farm, SO far as its means allow and
that the work has been done economically
Is proved by the fact that the price paid
seldom, K ever, goes above IS, and Is
usually only ~ or 50.