CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1930, 18 November 1884, Page 2

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

We hear a great deal about cruelty to animals nowa-day. Almost every pajfcr we take up aonfcains some account of the inauguration of a soaisfcy or branch of a society having the protection of fch.*» anjmal creation for its object. There are meetings of good citizens, virtually bursting with humanity, held periodically in our towns and cities, and from all this it is but reasonable to e.xpect that such crimes as maltreating or starving a horse, or a cow, a dog, or any othev animal aw 49 infrequent as the prosecutions to which they give me, But wo are sorry to say this is not to. Wa venture to assert that if all the flagrant breaches of the cruelty law that are daily talc ing place were brought before our courts of justice, cmv gqurts of justice would have very little epwft *im« fa »tfiend to anything else. Our object in panning fam few "nes is not to deal generally with this gpeu£ and important question, but merely to bring under the notice of the "immune," or pojice authorities, the gross cruelty that in nercfiiratod in the name of and under the protection nt the law itself.. We refer to the public" poaiwjs of this district. The apecial mission of these inaft&utions seems to be the infliction of cruelty ©nu unfortunate atraylings guilty pfjtho wyoJJ^jjf $rise o| foep£, found without any<^

visible means of support. In the miserable bleakness of a winter's day, with rain pelting in heavy and pitiless showers, and a piercing wind whistling through the shelterless rails, belly deep in mire, with barely sufficient food and water to sustain life, may often be seen the unfortunate inmates of our public pounds. Here they stand for days at a time, a living monument of man's inhumanity to— well to animals this time— moaning forth their misery, unheard, uncared for, and unknown. It is a matter of great surprise that the vigilance of the police, or the so-called " humane " officar.i, has not ere now overtaken and run to justice all this revolting cruelty which daily comes under our very eyes. Who is to blamo? The poundkeepers of course repudiate the indictment ; they do all they can or are supposed to do, and if the law will not provide better shelter and better food, why, they can do no more. But this poundkeeping business wants looking into. We do not like to make direct charges against poundkeepeis, but we must say that if the provision which under existing circumstances the law allows were a little better and les» sparingly administered the unfortunate inmates might with less cruelty tide over the weary hours of their merciless confinement. If a shilling a day is allowed for the keep of each animal, let a shilling a day be spent in itn maintenance. The Humane Society should lose no tune in carrying out the very plausible object of its existence, for as it exists at present it is little more than a dead letter or a shallow mockery.