SHEEP-SHEARING A CRUELTY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 292, 24 July 1875, Page 3

SHEEP-SHEARING A CRUELTY.

Sheep-shearing, although it was celebrated as a festive entertainment both by the Jews and Romans, and even in some parts in England is still made the occasion of mirth and gaiety, is by no means a festivity to the sheep themselves, when they are deprived of the protection nature has given them against the cold at this season of the year, when the wind is certainly not “ tempered to the shorn lamb. It is, therefore, satisfactory to find that (says the Pall Mall Gazette, March sth) four Gloucestershire farmers were find £3 each and costs, or, in default, sentenced to fourteen days’ hard labour, at the borough petty session, Stratford-upon-Avon, for having “ ill-treated, abused, and tortured certain animals called sheep, on Monday, the 22nd February last, by shearing them on that day. The defendants where prosecuted by the Royal Leamington and Warwickshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and having pleaded guilty to the charge, the Mayor, in passing sentence on them, made some observations on the subject of early shearing which it is to be hoped will act as a caution to farmers generally. There could, he said, be but one opinion that the removal of the covering from sheep, the warmest covering that could be given by Providence, and for a substitute giving thein a covering totally inadequate to the purpose, was an act of cruelty He had met some of the sheep thus shorn and clad in jackets on the road. The covering was in many instances -of no service at all. Some had the jackets blown off, others had them drawn under their bodies, thus completely uncovering their loins. The Mayor also pointed out that the most of meat exposed in the markets for sale in this state was not fit for human food, and butchers killing sheep funder such conditions sold meat which would be inferior in quality. The Court, it is stated, was crowded with farmers, dealers, and butchers, “ apparently watching -the proceedings with keen interest,” and it may be hoped that they will learn something from the decision.