HOLIDAYS FOR HORSES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 359, 10 May 1911, Page 2

HOLIDAYS FOR HORSES.

| The progress of the motor car is ; arousing some fear that the horse is I going to be given a permanent holiday j in the not distant future, but 1h rj is I still time for the practical application : of an idea that is being developed by ian American woman. Miss I\3. _C. | Dow, of Cincinnati, has an extensive business and she decided some time ago i that all her horses should ba given a | fortnight's rest in the country every | year. Then she issued a circular | letter suggesting that other business I people should follow her example. ; She asked some 3500 "business houses, insurance companies, railroads | and banks," throughout the United | States to give the horse a small share, j of space in their advertising matter. "A square deai for the horse," was the inscription she suggested. "We believe every horse deserves three ample meals daily, water frequently, proper shoes, a blanket in cold weather, two weeks' vacation annually. Throw away the whip!" Within a month more than half the firms had returned favourable answers, and Miss Dow states that at the present time fifty million pleas for consideration towards horses are in circulation in America. Hundreds of firms are allowing their horses an annual vaca- | tion, and the United States Governi ment has ordered that the animals I employed by the various official de- : partments shall be "laid off" for a i whole month every year. The Rev. |J. Reed Glasson referred to this movement at Greymouth a short time ago and suggested that there was scope for a similar humanitarian | effort in New Zealand. "There are \ some human brutes in Wellington, ! for instance," he remarked, "who | should not be allowed to own horses at | all. There should be a law that after ! three convictions for cruelty a man's I horses should be confiscated by the I State, taken away from him alto- : gether. This community ought to be ! able to put down cruelty to horses, | but it is too careless and indifferent Ito make the attempt." Very many I owners of horses, of course, have | realised that the animals must be j treated with proper consideration if j efficient service is desired, but I there are still far too many of Mr I Glasson's "human brutes," who will i never be kind except by compulsion.