The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-03-01
FUTILE SAYS RANGE
CONDITIONS ARE BAD
Condemns the Practice of Run
ming Sheep on the Desert
in Winter Time.

Sal, Lake railroad men are watching
with a great deal of interest the deveI-
opments in the question now pending al
Washington, 10 secure the passage OF an
act to compel railroad companies to
move livestock shipments at the rate
OF sixteen miles an hour.
II don't Know what action viii be
taken ut Washington" said &. l. Tuttle.
assistant general freight agent of the
oregon snort Line yesterday. The
matter is being crowded by some sheep
men through the humane societies, and
/ must confess that / am at a loss TO
know why the humane societies arc fig
uring in the matter. The laws requiring
The unloading OF livestock At intervals
Of twcntr-cight and thirtysiX hours are
being rigIdly complied with. and as long
as this IS true. il is no more inhuman
To move the stock ten miles an hour
Than To move 1t twenty miles an hour;
although Of course, under slower move
ment There is more shrinEage The ques
tion seems 60 be more of an economic
thau a humane one.
Il look to see wool shipments shrink
considerably this year MY best lnfor-
nation is that there has been a loss oi
20 per cent on the sheep ranging In the
desert tributary 10 our lines, and the
loss in Wyoming has been far greater.
sheep have simply died of starvation
in large numbers. The winter has been
unprecedentedly severe. Snow has fallen
I'm great quantities. There has hardly
been week without a storm.
twelve inches OF snow on the ground,
horses and cattle can move around from
place To place. and IL there is not food
at one point they can secure it at an
other. Tho same quantity of snow. how
ever makes sheep perfectly helpless.
Yearing lambs. aud even old sheep,
laden as they are with heavy 1ccccs.
cannot move from point To point.
The result Is ,hat unless food is
taken 10 them. they cannot survive.
There is nothing so inhuman this Gus
tom ift.tr hoo tn, tlN..
deserts without amy protection and 1t
seems to me that the range conditions
offer the best possible field fol humane
society work.
'I regard the loss of sheep through
starvation as almost entirely unneces-
sarY. Any good business man insur"s his
money he pays for that insurance is
never returned 10 him, unless he should
suffer the misfortune OF a fire.
sheep owners, on the other hand can
and should buy Quantities OF hay ana
barley sufficient 10 last them through tho
winter. II the winter happens to be an
open one. their feed is just as good the
following winter or several winters later
rs IL was at the time II WAS bought The
only expense attached TO this sort Of
protection is the interest Oh the money
invested in the feed and the little inSur-
ancc that would necessarily be carried
on il,
MANY sheep owners do protect their
hocks I'm this way but a great ma jority
of them turn their animals into the dcs-
ert and trust to providence to carry
them through the winter. The sufferiugs
of their animals in storms and through
lack OF food arc ptiful. Sheep men pro-
test If Il transportation company Shrin6s
through n slow movement their sheep,
say. two or three pounds per head while
they themselves permit their Hooks to
be decimatCd through the infinitely worse
torture oil slow starvation.
The humane societies have very
broad field to work ON i'm desert ranges.
The sheep mon would come into court
with far cleaner hands IL they inaugu-
rated a Dettcrment OF conditions at
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