CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.
(To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."1
SIR,—Much correspondence has appeared of late in the Press upon the various phases of cruelty to animals, and nothing but good results can follow such public exposures. There is, however, a condition of affairs which, so far as I know, has never before been given publicity, and I am sure if you could see your way to exercise your powerful influence you would earn the lasting gratitude of all animal lovers. I mean a form of hidden cruelty which, in effect, is more barbaric, more revolting, and more far-reaching than any that have been enumerated—the cruelty brought about through the conse- quences of mal-treatment at the hands of ignorant charlatans. It must, be conceded the animal body is a highly complex and sensitive element, which when it " gets out of gear " through accident or disease requires the assistance of skilled men to rectify. These man have to study four or five years at a recognized college before they are qualified to practise the science and art of veterinary medicine and surgery, but any untrained person can " doctor " a sick animal without having the slightest knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathology, or therapeutics, and if the British public only knew the amount of suffering through mal-treatment at the hands of quacks that some animals undergo, the force of opinion would, I feel sure, compel immediate legislative protection. The human being, with the advantage of his independent reasoning power,
can choose between the qualified and unqualified practitioner, and is a free agent. The dumb animal cannot choose, but
is at the complete mercy of his attendants. Is it not there-
fore all the more important that the law of the land should be made comprehensive enough to guard him from unnecessary suffering? For the last couple of decades I have made a care- ful note of cases coming under my own direct observation of the grossest forms of cruelty perpetrated by charlatans under
the pretext of treatment. So gross, indeed, that I fear many of your readers will scarce/ credit them as taking place in these enlightened days.
The following are a few taken at random: (1) An animal developed a tumour in the neck, for which the village quack applied friction by means of a flat stick and crude sulphuric acid—vitriol. This dressing in due course ate out the tumour, and, in addition, the large jugular vein, the animal bleeding to death, but imagine what five days' torture this animal went through while the acid was eating in and in attacking muscles, nerves, &c., before death brought relief ! (2) A pony went lame, and in all three blisters were applied to the leg over a period of two and a-half months, when we saw the case. Pus had burrowed from the sole of the foot to the heel, while a wire
nail, one and a-half inches long, the cause Of the trouble, was
found embedded in the foot. The animal was a perfect skeleton, and was ordered to be destroyed. Just think of it, a nail embedded in a sensitive foot for two to three months ! (3) A Hackney received an injury to the chest between the ribs. The local charlatan injected into the wound one and a-half pints of a strong solution of Jeyes fluid, the major portion of which was not returned, but entered the chest direct, setting up irritating pleurisy of a most painful type. Two days later, when we saw the patient, it was literally gasping for breath, and was destroyed. Had this man possessed the
smallest degree of anatomical and surgical knowledge, what suffering this animal would have been saved! (4) A horse with
acute tetanus was ordered to be walked to a canal bank and pushed into four to five feet of water, the quack explaining the shock caused by the cold plunge would " kill the worm in the brain "! Needless to add, the animal was not taken out alive, but before those tetanised muscles relaxed in death in that brief spell of convulsed anguish a thousand years of torture had passed. (5) A horse broke his leg below the knee, and, without any pretence of padding, rough wooden splints were applied and firmly bound with stout cord. The ends and edges of the splints cut through the skin into the bone, pus burrowed, the leg literally rotting off.—I am, Sir, &e.,
W. M. SCOTT, F.R.C.V.S.
The Laboratory, Friarn House, Bridgwater.
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