Dear Sir,

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 97, 10 August 1943, Page 4

Dear Sir,

Letters to the Editor must be clearly written on one side of the paper only and where a noxn-de-plume is used the name of the writer must be included for reference purposes. The Editor reserves the light to abridge* amend dr withhold any letter or

letters.

HANDLING OF BOBBY CALVES

Sir, —In Hhe late afternoon of August sth I had occasion to visit Awaken' Station. I. noticed a stationary goods train there, with several double decked trucks loaded, with bobby calves.which had previously arrived „ from Taneatua and were awaiting transit to Westfield and Horotui. I made it my business to have aa inspection ol these poor mites. Truly appalling and disgraceful is only a poor description. Some weret quite large calves! and some so very wee, I am sure many Were born not many hours before being loaded. Many of these a few hours old were lying on the' bottom of the trudks and ifee larger ones were tramping backward and forward all over them, they naturally were too small and Aveak to stand up against the strength of the larger calves. I wished to hav.e a witness to this scene and sought out one of the tr£kin officials. He said also that he was confident that many of the calves were only horn the day or night bpfore, and said a large, number Avould never reach their destination alive, being trampled to death. He assured me I was fully justified in reporting this matter as to just what is happening to the bobby calves. He also said he is quite willing to substantiate my statements of cruelty In the loading of such weak, wee I blame also the carriers for being so inhuman as to load such atoms, no other word describes it as they know full well what happens to the defenceless -creatures. Surely something can he done in this matter. Some time ago no calves were collected under a certain weight 561bs I Not sending my : calves to the lorry, 1 am not quite sure but think it is that Aveight. X have been trying for a long Avhile to obtain from our headquarters at Hamilton the service of an inspector from the S.P.C.A. but am tolcl that funds are loav and the Society cannot afford the salary. However, after Avhat I have, again seen, this spurs me on to fresh efforts. One is apt. to Avonder ' if we are really living in a land of civilisation Avhen ■ one sees such Avanton acts of cruelty to God's crea- " tures. I intend to take this matter' forward to proper headquarters and see if this canons' system of sending underweight, calves cannot be stopped. I do not suggest the .Avere overcroAvd.ed, certainly Avell packed. I read in yesterday's.Beacon A. N. Marsh's letter re his* bobby calves. What a frightful thing to happen, I trust he Avill take this matter forward also. To leave calves 48 hours with no shelter or food is uncalled for neglect on the carrier's part.. I) Avas not quite clear of his paragraph in Avhich he states* if collected before 3 p.m.

he would be unable to feed them and it would mean another 48 hours !of suffering for them. Surely he was humane, enough to keep them awhile, and feed them 'ere they were again put in a calf pen. I think he ■ ' would do the right thing anyhow, after seeing his letter. Yours etc., . CLARIBEL Awaikeri. Sir.—The bobby calves mentioned in my letter of last week missed the cartage truck and were taiken in J and fed by a neighbour and collector on Thursday, so I wish' to apologise to anyone concerned in the matter. Yours etc., A. N. MARSH, Awakeri.