The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931)(about) |
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Wednesday 4 January 1905
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1 correction by Lorna - Show corrections
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.
To the Editor.
Sir-You have earned the gratitude of all animal-lovers by opening your columns to an appeal for our dumb servants, more especially the horse. So much has been
written about the Adelaide tram-cars that any reference to the subject is of necessity boring, yet they comprise the worst evil (worst because apparently irremediable) in Australasia, and the system is a dis grace to a community calling itself civilised, much less Christian. Christian! Save the mark! In The Advertiser some months
ago appeared a letter signed "M.B.S.," saying - "I have been all over the world, and I have never seen such cruelty to horses as here, not even in Paris, where animals are not respected at all." No one can dispule "M.B.S.'s" statement. It is unnecessary to dwell on the inconve- nience to, and discomfort of, passengers, and I speak solely from the standpoint of the ill-used horse. The cars are frequently overcrowded, and the miserable brutes, worked to death, often die on the journey. If some of the so-called Christians of Adelaide employed a little less theory, and' a good deal more practice, some re- medy might be effected. It is horrible to contemplate such brutal ill-usage of one of
the noblest animals in the scheme of crea-
tion. Mrs. Ennis' able letter makes one wonder that her widespread exertions have not borne more fruit, for the work is a noble one, deserving of support. It is the duty of every man and woman to pro- tect animals; it is not enough that we do not ill-treat them; we must prevent others from doing so. I am sure there are many in Adelaide who would gladly assist Mrs. Ennis by any means in their power, given some practical instructions. In Mel- bourne the P.C.A. Society encourages the public to take the number, name, &c., of any rider or driver ill-treating a horse, and report him, and it is only when we acquire the moral courage to do this (re- gardless of sneers or rudenesses on the part
of the offender) determinedly, whenever
we see an animal ill-treated, that we can hone for practical results.-I am. &c.
THISTLE M. C. FISHER.
Hill-street, North Adelaide, January 3,
1905.
Sir-Having read your remarks in The Advertiser on kindness to animals, they brought to my recollection some lines I committed to memory more than sixty years ago, when I was a boy in England, in my native town of Bath, in the county of Somerset. (I am now 78 years of age.) The lines were painted on a large board, and placed over some beautiful stone watering troughs, near the famous Bath stone quarries, where the teamsters had an opportunity of reading them while their horses were drinking. They are: A man of kindness to his beast is kind,
For brutal actions show a brutal mind.
Remember, He who made thee made the brute,
And He who gave thee reason formed him mute. He cannot speak, but God's all-seeing eye
Discerns thy actions towards, him from the sky. He was designed thy servant, not thy drudge; Remember, his Creator is thy judge. -I am, &c,
WILLIAM HURN. Springhead, Angaston, January 3, 1905.