Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1907-04-11
TRAINED BY CRUELTY
Animals as a Rule, Taught Tricks
Through Torture.
KINDNESS IS NOT A FACTOR.

II have an old fashioned belief that
one should never make a damning
statement unless he is prepared to
prove 1t up to the hilt. And so | am
confronted at the outset with an al
most i~nsurmountable dificulty-to the
layman who would accurately inform
himself of he methods of animal train
ing there is opposed a bulwark of con.
cealment grim and silent as the great
wall of China" writes w. Rainton
Clarke in the Manchester Chronicle.
"The glib assurance that it is all
done by kindness has become a by
word. No true lover of an animal be-
lieves it, nor could any reasoning crea-
ture, lacking that particular affection.
If he will carefully examine such facts
as are obvious.
Granted there are animals Of ex-
IRENE intelligence and ductability.
Granted there are mon and women OF
extraordinary influence over birds and
beasts. The best these twain can
achieve in combination does not pro-
duce an effective stage show, nor can
one-hundredth part of the 'entertain-
ment' provided by the trainer be
ascribed to his abnormal ability or to
the especially acute intelligence of his
pupil. 1t Is more probably the tri-
umph OF a brute over a brute by pa
tient and persistent cruelty.
1.-THE public judges by what 1t sees
on the stage and remarks in admira-
ton and approval that there was no
sign Of a whip An animal exhibitor
who was avowedly cruel would be
pretty low down I'm the ranks Of show
men. l own a particularly ferocious
looking bulldog who goes crazy with
delight at the sight Of a whip. 1t has
been his pet toy for years and means
the beginning of a romp. On the other
hand, a movement of the trainers fin
ger almost imperceptible to the audi
dence may suggest to the powerful
Imagination of the animal 1endish tor
ture. 1t may recall the hot irons, the
agonizing Utilization of a nerve.
"Such appeals to the memory are, In
truth, the stock In trade of the animal
trainer. What the wretched creature
has gone through during months Of
daily preparation can never be known,
for the work is carried out in secrecy
and seclusion. There Is rarely a second
person present, and the brute cannot
speak. That is the most hideous factor
OF the case.
There Is no ~concealment of the fact
that the training is apt to be hard and
painful, and a blow is not
from the most humane and patient
trainer, angered, it may be, by stupidi-
ty and characterization. LIZ 1t Is so
with the boy, what must 1t be with
the brute?
There Is no possession SO hideous
as that of the triumph, ever
tarily, Of cruelty. Touch a child, a
horse or a dog with a whip and there
Is a hideous sense of satisfaction, even
when the cause is righteous. The joy
Of inficting pain is possible to the best
of US M grows by what it feeds on.
Imagine the situation between a
coarse vulgarian and a helpless brute
and you get the process of animal
training.
Il have never known a disinterested
member Of the circus community pre-
tend that the education Of any animal
known them to speak with horror Of
the methods of some trainers.
1T is not very long since an athlete
snatched the whip from a well known
dog trainer on the stage of a London
variety theater and soundly thrashed
him amid the plaudits of the company.
Another distinguished professor Is
blacklisted by one Of the largest syn
dicates for undisguised cruelty (on the
stage to his large I'M various family.
Two of our best known managers abb
solutely refuse to deal with animal
turns and make no concealment OF
their reasons. And the editor, now de-
ceased. Of an important professional
paper. for years refused to attend any
place of entertainment where dogs or
birds, or indeed any dumb creature
save conventional circus horses. ap
peared.
"All these men knew what they were
about. Most of the other performers
in a music hall fight keep shy Of the
animal trainers. The stage hands speak
with horror of what they see.
The mortality among performing
animals is perfectly awful. Ever so
many are ~hopelessly injured In the
process Of education, and ever SO many
succumb to the dreadful life of nightly
performances.
whenever a case Of cruelty by q
performer before the courts one
is amazed by the ineptitude and fulfil
ity of the evidence.
1.-THE public Is Of course the main
culprit. 1t wants the shows, and man
ayers provide them, though they must
be conscious Of the truth of all I have
written. They even assist In the un-
kindness. for the stabling and menag-
erie accommodations of some of our
largest establishments are insanitary
and inadequate in the extreme.
II finish as I begin. The cruelty OF
animal training Is almost impossible of
proof. Much of 1t should be obvious,
and so much of my Indictment as is
not to be proved by the obvious Is not.
l solemnly affirm, based on a desire to
be sensational or on idle gossip. but on
the dependable assurances Of men and
women who dare not submit to public
citation"