Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-27

work in this country, an increase OF
their earning capacity BY five years
more would mean a saving in snort
while of over $1,000,o00,000. Lack OF
proper education' in the care of cattle.
sheep and hogs in this country, and
lack of humanity on the part of many
of the owners, loses the country VA
100000 a year-all due to negligence,
cruelty and exposure.
Last spring the association sent a
commission out west to investigate the
condition of the range cattle, to see
IL anything could be done to amelio-
rate conditions among them. The re-
port was not cheerful one. The COM
mittee found cattle starving and wholly
unprotected, while thousands were sui
fering from mango. Fifty to seventy
per cent of the cattle on the ranges
visited had died from neglect and cold.
Horses were found to fare better, for
they paw away the snow from the
grass and break the Ice for water to
drink, but cattle cannot do this. Dur
ing the year ending with March 81,
1906, government reports showed that
nearly a million and half head of
cattle and near y as many sheep died
from exposure in this country. The
losses for 1906 and 1907 have been
about the same, the value of those lost
each year approximating 24,000,000. The
association hopes by presenting these
figures to a thrifty nation to increase
the interest in dumb creatures through
the economic II not through the hu-
name side of the question.
The food supply of the. nation has
come in for a good bit of discussion
during the thirty-one years of the as
sociation's existence. 1t started out
with a plea for more sanitary as well
as Tess painful methods of butchering
animals. Then they discovered that
the public health was menaced by the
use of meat taken from the carcasses
of animals that had been trampled to
death in freight cars, or had been IA
tally wounded in the long hauls. The
the law originally required shippers to
keep cattle on cars only twenty eight
hours. The law of 1906 extends this
period to thirty-six, during which time
the cattle are without food or water.
About 100000 cattle are transported
this way annually. OF these 10000. are
taken from the cars dead each Year,
and $4,000 injured or mutilated. In
the cause of humanity and in the in
terest of public health, the association
is seeking to have local butchering
stations established. shipping the car
casses as is done in Argentina and Aus
tralia. Argument against this is that
lliS plOQuChS VI tnC bttA NVniN ~
lost without great factories to handle
them, and that it would never pay.
The association asks for the intro
duction into the schools of a system
that would train children in the care
OF animals. and with the growth of ag-
ricultural colleges and Industrial
schools this Is slowly coming about.
Out of 100 cases of animals protected
by one eastern humane society it was
proved that ninety-nine had reached
their dire straits through cruelty of
their caretakers. Attention has been
turned to the wild animals who are
held in captivity for circuses or for
theater performances. Through care
full Investigation 1t was discovered that
every animal, except dogs and horses,
has been taught its tricks by means
of the whip or some form of torture,
and the association earnestly urges
that public opinion be enlisted to stop
the practice. 1t places this on the
plane of bull fighting.
The influence of the American move
ment has spread abroad and there are
societies protecting children and ami
mails in most of the European cpun-
tries. 1t was American influence that
stopped the practice of throwing a dog
into the Grotto del CAM, near Naples,
to show how poisonous the gas was.
and 1t is being greatly uSeu just now
in putting stop to the practice OF ship
ping worn-out and dying horses from
England into Belgium, where they are
eaten as food.
The association is yet far from its
goal: Only one-fourth of the people in
the United States have yet been
reached, and even among the most en-
lightened there is much room for in
struction in the art of being kind. Rest
farms for worn-out horses and refugees
for cats and dogs have been estab-
lished In some places. Some are board
ing homes, some are free. Philadel-
phia annually relieves about 1900 hurt
animals, and 1t is a bad commentary
on the standard of kindness among
many householders of America that last
year the Humane society of that city
alone took eighty-five cats and dogs
from empty houses, where their own
ers hand shut them up to die when they
had moved away. Each year, how
ever, the association draws in more
of the prominent men and women of
the country. and with such men as
Secretary Taft. ex-President Cleve-
land, Cardinal Gibbons, Bishop Doane.
Archbishop Ryan and DR.. Mackay-
Smith on its vice presidents roll, and
with Dr. William c. Stillman Of AL
bany, N. Y, as president, its future
success will be even greater than its
past.