FAT STOCK AT BREEDING

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1442, 29 September 1881, Page 4

FAT STOCK AT BREEDING

A breeder, in a letter to the Agritultural Gazette, protests against the .baneful practice of awarding prizes at livestock shows to aniraala manifestly unfit for breeding. He says the praotice prevails in all classes of domesticated animals used for food, and is defended by the argument that the only method of showing 1 what an animal is capable of is to couvert it into an illustration of its own capabilities. This argument is, hnwevor, fallacious, for no one doubts the inherent disposition to fatten in thcifi auimals, and the proper placo to prove it is in fjhe "fat 17 shows of winter. It is absolutely ridiculous to exhibit a breeding ewe in such an overloaded condition that she is in reality barren. That particular ewe is not goiug to improve her race. She is as completely dead to posterity aa if sho were stuffed ; and in fact, she might "just as well be stuffed as appear in the revoltingly fat condition in which sho is praised by the judges and awarded a blue rosette. It is high time that the system of crammifg and ruining animals for show were exposed and done away with. If a man cannot judge a sheep or pig unless it is first converted into a shapeless mass he is not deserving the name of judge. This unwholesome taste for extreme fat, and an artifical appearance, has been erected and is fostered by the Boyal Agricultural Society of England and our other agricultural societies. If the "Royal" was to insist upon animals being exhibited in a perfectly natural state, without colouring, trimming, shaving, or plucking. If they were to appoint an inspector to rigorously disqualify every animal which showed traces of having been tampered with, or which was too fat for the natural conditions of a farm, they would confer a great boon upon agriculturists. The almost certaiaty that "getting up" a pen of ewes for show renders them useless for the very purpose for which they were bred and exhibited, is in itself an anomaly. It prevents our best breeders from exhibiting either their cattle or sheep, as these animals are too valuable to spoil. As a bleeder I know the pleasure and profit to be derived by conquering the forms, frames, features and fleece of different flocks. But as a breeder I object to a red sheep cut into conventional shape, fatted up a destructive pitch, and rendered unfit for breeding, being forced upon my attention as the perfection of ovine beauty.