The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1907-05-16
Med We TORTURE Cattle
Unnecessary Cruelty to Cows
and Sheep in Transportation.
THE NEED OF REFORM.
Sidetracked for Hours or Days With
Insufficient Food and Water
Uncovered Cars Render 1t Diff
cult for Animals to Retain Foot
ina in Sleety Weather.

| Defenders Of present conditions have
| good deal to say about improved
stock cars" that is, cars provides
with troughs for feeding and water
ing the cattle without unloading them
en- route. The superintendent Of one
Of New York's largest meat COM
| panies assured me that these cars
were used almost exclusively, and
that cattle In transit were we'll cared
! for in every way, says a writer In
| the New York Tribune, while on tour
| of inspection of one Of the large stock
| yards in that city "Show me some
I! of the improved stock cars, those with
! feed Iroughs," the visitor asked the
inspector of the yard. The Inspector
shook his head.
You don't see many of those" he
| sail. '"The cattle couldn't be driven
to the troughs to feed, if there were
tronghs; it wouldn't be practicable;
they are packed too tight. Here" he
went on, paus1ng by an empty car, lis
typical stock car. Five out Of six
of the cars that come in here are like
| this one"
| IT, was an open box car, without
tronghs. The sides of it were partly
Of Stats, which had wide spaces be-
tween them, giving practically no pro-
lection against the weather There
was absolutely no bedding on the floor,
This car" said the inspector, lis
just as it came in last night, with
lot Of steers in it. You see the floors
nor bedded, and, naturally, especial
!y in sleety, freezing weather, it's not
easy for an animal to keep it's footing
on floor like this, with the car bump
ing and swaying over the rails
Dr. Jaques, of Chicago, says Il
know that the cattle car in general
use is open on all sides to the weather
the cold being much increased by
rapid transit. The cars are usually
crowded, to save room and to prevent
iavage animals from goring one an
other. The long Journeys, unbroken
by rest, result In animals falling down
from exhaustion, when they are
trampled upon by the others. 1t is a
destination with a certain percentage
of dead and wounded"
At Buffalo, according to statistics
gathered by DR.. William o. Stillman,
president of the National Humane AS
ISOLATION. there were taken from the
cars in the year ending with October.
1905, 1851 dead cattle which had died
in transit, and 1922 cattle more or
less seriously crippled by falling in
the cars. If this was the case under
the 28-hour law, how would the ami
mails fare under a law extending the
time to forty hours? The 2S-hour
law is disregarded in the far West
One Western railroad kept cattle on
its cars for from fifty to sixty hours
without anything to eat or drink.
The uninitiated may find it difficult
TO believe that the cattle owners and
the railroads can be so careless OF
marketable property. AS to that, the
history of cattle raising shows that
The stockman will often submit to lose
certain percentage of cattle rather
than. t..ke measures to prevent the
loss; witness how cattle are left out
on the great ranges of the West, to
perish in the terrible snowstorms by
thousands. Whether it is carelessness
or cruelty, whether it is that these
losses amount to less than it would
cost to protect the cattle properly,
there are the facts. AS to the ship
ping, there is no doubt that the cattle
owners would be pleased to have the
railroads take better care Of live
stock, and not smash it up SO badly
SO far declined to do-at least with
out charging more than the shippers
are willing to pay.
Many cattle owners, though, do not
let the usages of the. railroads cost
them too much. They have their
methods. For instance, when a lot OF
steers are prisoned in a car for two
or three days. humping along the
tracks, or perhaps sidetraclked at some
way station for hours because it ls
inconvenient to move them just then,
they lose, through hunger and thirst
and exhaustion and terror, considera-
BILE in weight Promptly upon reach
ing their destination, however, they
are allowed to take all the water ana
feed they can hold, which brings up
their weight and makes them look
plump to the buyer. Physicians say
that this treatment (longer hunger and
thirst followed by excessive eating
and drinking) makes an animal few
erish, tends to render virulent any
seeds OF disease that may be lurking
in it's system; in short, makes it unfit
for human food. But then the rail-
roads and the catl1emen do not have
to pay the doctor bills Of the persons
who are made i'll by eating impure
meat.
Franklin-'tIss Smith a man Of the