The Dishorning of Cattle.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3263, 23 July 1889, Page 3

The Dishorning of Cattle.

The Lord Chief Justice and MiJustice Hawkins have just delivered judgment in the appeal case of Ford t Wiley. Tho appellant, an officer he Society for tho Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, prosecuted the respondent, a Suffolk farmer, upon two separato informations for dishorning oxen. The Suffolk magistrates dismissed the informations,

subject to a case which they stated for the opinion of tho High Court, Tho question was argued some time ago boforo their lordships, who expressed an opinion that the magistrates should have convicted, hut iu view of the importance of tho case postponed

*(ir decision in order that tho might pft their reasons in writing. Tho

Lord Chief Justice, in delivering judgment, dealing with the Act under which the informations were laid, pointed out that the question was whether the operation was reasonable and necessary, That without which the animal could not attain its full development, or bo lit for its ordinary use, clearly came within tho term " necessary," and could bo performed, What was necessary within this limitation might be done even if il

caused pain, but only such pain as was reasonably necessary to attain T-ho result aimed at, For' twenty years and moro the practice of dishorning cattle had, it appeared, been entirely disused throughout England and Wales; and it was incredible to him that an operation for many years wholly discontinued should suddenly become necessary, The details of the evidenca were literally disgusting, and showed that tho operation was dotestably brutal, tho beasts being placed between two waggons one at a a plank being secured to two Btoufc oaken posts, to which the animal's head was fixed as in a vice, and two men held tho head while a third sawed off tho horns with a common saw, After the operation tho bullocks bled for live or six minutes, and made Buch a noise that they might be iieard a mile oft'. Further, it was stated that it was not benoficial to (he animal, but it onabled the owner to realise one or two pounds moro for them when sold. Tho coarser the breed of the animal the coarser would

be its boms, and by removing its • horns the natural coarseness of the ♦ animal was concealed from the buyer. '/ Tho practice was denounced as a most cruel one, causing fearful pain, and was absolutely unnecessary, and this was said not by sentimentalists but by men of the world and men of sense, dealing with scientific matters in a ficicntifit manner, The disproportion between the means employed jind the object rendered tbo practice (Rot only barbarous and inhuman, it appeared to him, clearly unlawful also, He was of opinion that tbo magistrates ought to have convicted, and the case must bo remitted back to them, Mr Justico Hawkins concurred, and said tho practice of dishorning caused torture, and anyone who could read the evidence without commiseration must be devoid of all feeling for the sufferings of God's creatures; and be who would inflict such suffering must indeed be jruel at heart and insensible to the dictates of humanity, Appeal allowed, and the case remitted back to tho magistrate,