THE ANIMALS’ UTOPIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 May 1923, Page 4

THE ANIMALS’ UTOPIA.

HO\Y IT MAY RE MADK. “There had keen milch befriending ami taming ol big animal-.': the large! carnivora, i urn bed and cleaned, reduced to a milk dietary, emasculated in spirii, am! altogether I iece. t teii. were pets and ornaments in Utopia. .... The dog hud given up barking, and tins comparatively rare. Sporting dogs wore not used, nor small pci annuals. Ilnr-e- Mr Barnstaple did not see." This is taken Irntn a passage in It. G. Wells’s new hook, “Men lake Girl'," dese lipl i(e of how animals are dealt with in tlie l lopian (val id which id- hero. Mr Ikirnsl.*|* (isilej. No hot -os in Utopia, and, worse than tiiai. “Mr Barnstaple did me mi" I hem *. cry mm h.“ 4 ha I kind

lilt- whole pa s.-.igc. which i- toe 1-me to quote in full, brings a -mile to lh" fare if a reader who is til all, or haul any lime been, friendly with all animal. lie that animal cat. dog. lior-e, if; ivrii ran,ary. Birds air into, we an to! I. in that clean, tidy, but rathe: pi ie'-.i ■ha ml dree r\ Utopia here tie men were like gniß. and Ihr lions like tame rats. For it would lie dreary. Imagine a worbl wherein there were no Australian terriers or Sydney s,lkies for the children to have a- friends. Whore Foys and girls grew to maturity quite uneducated in the knowledge of the dentils of devotion which can shine mil cl tin- little dog’s eyes as v, el! as the fun and frolic sparkling m

the same eyes when games are afoot. 'lho. r feelings would never have been drawn out any other way. Human beings learn much pity and tenderin'-s in that wav. And these are the foumiatinn feelings of the B.H.U.U.A. While most of us continue to feel doubtlul about Utopuia for ourselves, we ran console our spirits with the thong'd 1 Hul we can give to our animals Utopia. It i- a very easily arranged matter. Jit-l kindness and foo,j ami drink enough, and a quick- and easy killing. That is ail they ii-k. Women are taking up the topic of tin humane treatment ef travelling stock, and this shows how the idea of kindness in animals is working like a lenten in the public conscience, quickening it to life and action. Some very si range beliefs about the minds and capabilities of ail living livings other than human have been expressed from time to time. It is quite usual now t i hear people say that dogs and horses can reason, and possess souls. English papers ef recent dales lull that the experiments in the case of tiie Alborfeldl hor-.es have hem taken up again. Just before the war these “talking" horses, as they -are called, w ere coming into publicity, and Maeterlinck wrote about them, saying lie believed they wen* gifted with reason. Then they were forgotten—like many oilier tilings while the storm was on us now they are “up" again as a seii-ation. It iall of interest, because, relying on the oft-qunteihverse in Eccie.-tiaste- iii., 21. many people cmnend that there inuthing in the Bible actually against the idea of a future for animals Bishop Butler says: “There is no reason why animals should not be immortal,” and that, “we know not wills what latent powers they may be endowed.'’ Then the doctrine of transmigration of smils opens up a wide field of thought quite worthy of the attention of those who wish to see kindness and enlightenment spread thronghnut all the community. Hueli thinking would inevitably lead to greater consideration for ail animal' until the work of the IES.P.C.A. would become useless, because quite unnecessary. Then would indeed begin 1 lie animals’ Utopia.