BOBBY CALF TRADE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 321, 7 September 1932, Page 3

BOBBY CALF TRADE

CRITICS DECLARE THAT GROSS CRUELTY PREVAILS. DEFINITE ACTION URGED. Allegations of cruelty to bobby calves were made at a meeting-of the New Plymouth Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. As the outcome of discussion, the society's inspector, Mr. B. Tippins, was instructed to take legal action in any instances where he had sure proof of cruelty. A letter on the subject was receivsd from the Wellington S.P.C.A., as follows: — "The proprietress of a Taranaki country hotel states that she has watched calves being cruelly loaded for Waitara, where they arrive some dead and some with broken legs. A farmer in Hawera reports that calves have been pushed into a siding and left for as long as three days without food. It is also stated that day-old calves in the Hawera district are left on the roadside with their legs tied." The writer asked that the Taranaki Society take action in the matter. The bobby calf industry was very open to abuse, it was stated at the meeting, and in many instances was a "cruel business." There were numberless cases of calves, not the required age of three days, being sent to slaughter. Besides being positively cruel, this practice was unhygienic, as the meat from the very young calves was not fit for human consumption. Many Too Young. However, it was most difficult to check the abuses at present so prevalent. The fault lay with the farmers, not with the principals of the freezing works and slaughtering houses. The calves placed in the pens for collection by lorry drivers were frequently too young. If the drivers refused to piclc them up they would be left in the pens. Then, too, if he informed the inspector, it would he found impossible to locate ths owner. Many of the calves slaughtered were less than 24 hours old. The inspector often made trips with the lorry drivers when they were coll'ecting the calves, but found it most difficult to obtain the information necessary for a successful prosecution. The opinion was expressed that most of the trouble occurred, not on the lorries, but on the trains. Here the calves were hsrded into trucks land often left in sidings the whole night without food. Sometimes they were too weak to stand and once they got down they wene trampled to death. Mr. Tippins was then formally instrueted to take action in the matter whenever opportunity presented and the hope was expressed that the Bench would suport the society by imposing heavy penalties on those found guilty of cruelty.