The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1913-04-03
f men who are the moral outlaws Of

oI men VINO are the moral outlaws OF
society.
Il am sorry to say there is lot of
outrageous cruelty practiced on horses in
your State. Humane people ought to
combine to prosecute men who knock
down horses and brag about it after
wards in public. l wish to testify that
most of the horse handlers are humane
men. who manage their beasts with
proper kindness, but on the other hand
there is large class of men who believe
ls to curse, kick and club it into obedi-
ence. Organized societies are needed to
handle these.
There is much suffering among horses
IN this State from the use of overdraw
checkreins. and it has often made my
blood boil to witness it. A lot of the
cruelty of course is thoughtlessness or
ignorance; but much of it is pure cussed-
ness, practiced by smart horsemen, who
try to wrilg all the antics and strut they
can out of their beasts on the public
| thoroughfares. A drastic law should for
bid the use of checkreins drawn tighter
than the natural poise of the beast neck.
| The sutferings that some of these high
checked horses undergo is torturing for
humane person to behold. The farm
ers oranges ought to go on record
against this thing. l notice that most
OF the farmers use no checkreins 1t is
mostly the smart townfoks. Every
humane person should work to put these
checkreln tyrants out of the tyrant bust
ness, and educate and demonstrate with
those who unwillingly cause this suffer-
ing to horses
II am very sorry to say that l have
noticed more wicked checkrein cruelty
IN the city of Bangor than in any city
that l recall, The horses heads are
strung up here something awful. The
poor animals strain and twist and gag,
trying to get free from these tight
checks. ask the people of Bangor to
watch the horses on the city streets
watch how they toss their heads into the
air In the effort to get relief. Unloose
the checkrelns and see how quickly the
heads will go down to the ground. No
checks should be strung up any h CHER
than the natural poise of the animals
neck; and this can be easily determined
by allowing the horse to relax. | don't
know of anything chat will govern this
situation except public opinion In Mass
achusetts we have photographed these
cruelties on the streets and shown them
up in the papers. These checkreins fear
public opinion more than they fear any,
thing else. In the city of Paris, France,
the newspapers protested against blind
ers on horses and drove them off the
brides in the city.
"On the other hand," said the humane
agent, 81 want to commend the humane
ness of horse owners here in relation to
binders. There are few close fitting
binders in your State so far as l have
noticed. The binders in use here on
your horses set well away from the ami
mails eyes, and reckon it is due to the
fact that better class of brides are in
use here than in Massachusetts. The
binder outrage to horses in the city of
Boston Is as pronounced as is the check
rein outrage in Bangor; and this goes to
show how these things run IN streaks.
You can travel in Boston or it's suburbs
throughout a whole day and find scarcely
a tight checkrein in use
Most of your horses in the woods are
treated most excellently. They are
splendid animas-the best to be seen
anywhere, and the drivers seem to take
pride IN caring for them. There are no
checkreins whatever in use among the
woods horses, and very few of them in
the country districts among the farmers.
1t seems to be a foolish city and sporty
fad, and do hope that all horse owners
will try to favor their animals in respect
to this negative form of cruelty-the
overdraw check"