Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-03-09
TRAINED BY CRUELTY
Animals, as a Rule. Taught Tricks
Through Torture.
KINDNESS is NOT A FACTOR.
The Result of the Methods Employed,
Says an English Writer, Is the Tri-
umPh CT Brute Over a Brute by
Patient arc Persistent Cruelty.

one should never make 4 damning
statement unless lie is prepared to
prove il up TO tie hilt. And 50 l am
confronted at the outset with an al
most inSurmountable difficulty-tO the
layman who would accurately inform
himself of the 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.
1.-The glib assurance that it is all
done by kindness has become by
word. No true lover of an animal be-
Heves 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-
treme intelligence and ductability,
Granted there are men 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
tent and persistent cruelty.
1.-The public judges by what it sees
on the stage and remarks in admira-
ton and approval that there was no
nj
who was avowedly cruel would be
pretty low down in the ranks of show
men. / own a particularly ferOciOus
looking bulldog who goes crazy with
delight at the sight Of whip. 1t has
been his pet tay 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 fend1sh 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 second
person present, and the brute cannot
sneak. 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 uncommon
from the most humane and patient
trainer, angered, it may be, by stupid
ty and characterization. If it is SO
with the boy, what must it be with
the brute2
There is no possession SO hideous
as that of the triumph, even mOmen-
ltariIy, of cruelty. Touch a child,
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 and grows by what it feeds on.
Imagine the situation between
coarse vulgarian and a helpless brute
and you get the process of animal
training.
81 have never known a diSintereSted
member of the circus community pre-
tend that the education of any animal
was pleasant to the animal, and l have
known them to speak with horror Of
fhe methods of some trainers.
cit is not very long since an athlete
,snatched the whip from well known
dog trainer on the stage of 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 (Off the
STAGE to his large and various family
Two of our best known managers alb
sOlutely refuse 10 deal with animal
turns and make no c0ncealment 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
.AII these men knew what they were
about. Most of the other performers
in 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 a
performer comes 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 l have
written. They even assist in the IN
kindness. for the stabling and menag-
erie accommodations of some of our
largest establishments are insanitary
and inadequate in the extreme.
IT finish as / begin. The cruelty of
animal training is almost impossible OF
proof. Much of it should be obvious,