The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1911. DOCKING HORSES' TAILS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 9, 26 August 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1911. DOCKING HORSES' TAILS.

A test case of great interest and importance to owners of horses was decided in London the oilier day, when a magistrate held that the act of docking horses’ tails by pulling out hairs was an act of cruelty and an operation that contravened the law. The case was brought by the Society for the P rovention of Cruelty to Animals against a London manufacturer, who had docked two horses, in order to smarj.cn their appearance and strengthen their backs. Two veterinary surgeons, one of them an ex-president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, gavo evidence for the Society 7. One said docking was net necessary, either for the health and condition, or the comfort of horses, and the other that the operation was “absolutely unnecessary’ and extremely painful.” In inflicting a fine, the magistrate said there was nothing in the evidence to show that the practice was reasonably necessary. “The docking of horses is founded on ignorance,” he declared, “but, having become a custom, it prevails long after the ignorance has boon exposed. It is really done for the sake of appearance and fashion. A horse that is docked really 7 does look smarter, and might fetch more money at a sale, but to-enhance its value by inflicting pain on a horsg is not justifiable.” As nine-tenths of the horses in London have their tails docked, the decision lias caused a stir. it is contended that driving will be much more dangerous if docking is prohibited, owing to the risk of the reins getting under the horse’s long tail, and so high an authority as the Duke of Beaufort, master of the Badminton Hounds, describes the objection to docking as absurd. “Wo have been strongly opposed for the last ten or fifteen years to the practice of docking horses merely to make them look smarter,” said an official of the R.S. P.C.A., “but we have always been careful not to outpace public opinion. Now we feel that public opinion is with ns on the subject, and we hope that wo shall ho able to hasten the approach of the time when docking will only ho resorted to in eases of necessity, such as when th'd "tail is injured or diseased, or possibly 7 i.i the case of horses employed in-tin carts, "hero there would he a likelihood of (be tail being crushed daring the tipping of the cart-body.”