JUVENILE INHUMANITY.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 404, 28 October 1884, Page 2

JUVENILE INHUMANITY.

We have to hand the second annual report of the Otago Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and from it we are disposed to address a leaderette to the young, among whom we are aware we have many intelligent readers ; nay, more, we shall bo glad to give space iv a future issxie to anything that our boj r s and girls may contribute on the subject provided it be well put. For cruelly torturing a K-it : For ill-treatiug a Cat : Such are two of the cases brought under notice in this report, and we know that " the child is father to the man." What the young see done they will do, and what one learns to do when young that he will do when ho is old. Fancy appearing in Court for torturing a rat ! A little casuist may reply, Why, a rat is vermin, and are we not entitled to tho fun of the worry and to be in at the ki 11---ing ? So this young savage sits on the fence and sets on his dog. JSTow, rats are to be killed, but not worried. Why do they exist at all? The Bishop of Melbourne might probably rcpty that they are sent to plague lazy and careless men, or sometimes to eat up misers, as the one told in the story book who dwelt in a castle on the lthinc. However that may be, and our young readers may reason it out for themselves, one thing is certain — they were not made to be tortured ; and if boys and girls will torture these creatures the constable and the magistrate will not look kindly on such boys and girls. They get a black mark, and are designated young blackguards ! Who would torture a rat to earn the title of blackguard? Grown up people may make a personal application ; there is less hope of an old blackguard. Then to ill-treat a cat ! Why the cat was made to help man. We need no Bishop to tell us that, and tho boy or git who ill-treats a cat is ungrateful. The former tormentor may have been a blackguard (we like to call things by their ri^ht names though ugly), but this is an ungrateful blackguard. He has got a degree to his black heart. For ill-treating a Horse : The chief reason why man ill-treats a horsy is from want of understanding. Many horses are more intelligent (shame to say it), are more cleanly, and far soberer than tiie boys and men who work them. Whenever you see one illtreat a horse, you are safe to conclude that oli the two. the horse is the more intelligent auimal. Every observer will, confirm that remark. The teetotallers blame the driuk ; for the most of the cruelty to horses, but that is a mistake. The drink only brings out the native brutality. We have often thought that if those who work horses j were taught more of physiology and ■ dynamics they could understand to get a gi;eat deal more work out of horses, with tar kss .exhaustion than they do — in f: n Jt 'v wil i! 1 lktl ° oy n ' Q exhausting at all all. lhe frame of the animal i# *o muds as to apply to every mechanical

appliance, and it only requires to be directed and handled in the proper way, and cheered in the proper tones of voice to show a power equal almost to the most intelligent of men. "Who does not admire the noble horse ? The Ota go Society now admit children as associates for sixpence annually, and : until a local secretary is appointed from among our juvenile residents why shJtild not the town treasurer nt the Town Hali undertake to forward subscriptions ?