AN IJNENGLISH TRAFFIC
1 HE time has come when we should put an end to the degrading traffic in our old and worn-out horses. The report of a Departmental Committee, compared with reports by many correspondents, makes it clear that the trade cannot be rid of its offences by inspection and regulation. This conclusion is not officially confessed, but may be deduced from many incidental passages.
The facts are these : 'Some farmers and breeders, and many urban users of horses, who find themselves in possession of old and tired animals, especially that most English variety, the Shire, send them away to be killed outright or worked to their death in Belgium, Holland and France. This last journey is an unlovely spectacle in all its aspects. Many horses are shipped from London to Hull. They arc inspected several times and some are rejected at various stages of the journey. They may be passed in London and condemned in Hull. Now and again a condemned horse is sent to another port or inspector and so gets through to the Continental slaughter hon Se. The shippers do their best ; and perhaps at the Iasi stage of all the slaughterers--at any rate, the Dutch slaughterers—kill as humanely as they may. But the long, painful journey is punctuated by spectacles that stir pity and indignation in any lover of animals. Pitiable beasts arc delivered over to an insensate class. The last scene of all is, of course, the worst ; and still from time to time and'here and there sheer unnecessary cruelty inter- vene.4. • The Morning Post—which no one will accuse of excess of weak sentiment—has made this grimly clear 'in a message from a special correspondent who visited Va,u- girard. The whole question has been admirably discussed and investigated in that paper.
Outcries' against the traffic have arisen many times for a generation. The present rebellion is due, not to any aggravation of the inhumanity, but to the publishing of a Blue Book (at the price of 30s. !) which gives the evidence and findings of a Departmental Committee. It justifies, it whitewashes the traffic, but is a very un- convincing volume. There are no signs of an endeavour to track down the individual old horse to its fate at the hands of the smaller purchaser, who is the worst offender against humanity ; and such independent investigators as the Morning Post correspondent give the lie direct to the evidence supplied to the committee from Vaugirard. The truth is that Government Committees. are ineffective as detectives. It is extremely difficult (as the Linlithgow Committee found) to evade the net of the :trade and to reach untainted evidence. Committees of this sort seldom unearth what it is to the interest of the trade to gloss or conceal. A good newspaper correspondent will ,probe more essential facts in a week than a committee by 10,000 questions and 60,000 words. The report of the Committee, then, is unconvincing; but it would be a mistake to lay much stress on the duel be- tween. the humanitarians, abetted by newspapers, and a Government Committee. Neither party perhaps quite sees the wood for the trees. They wrangle over the authenticity of details, such as the repulsive act of murder shown on a film of the R.S.P.C.A. The accumu- lated facts have no need of the bolstering of any particular detail in any particular place. The gravamen of the charge is not that one horse was stabbed with a knife in a backyard in Belgium, or even that in some places in Prance or Holland the pole-axe is used cruelly. The whole traffic from start to finish is open to abuse. Abuses are only prevented by close and difficult inspection. The very men engaged in the work often hate it. It is not consonant with our national character and reputation to permit this sort of exploitation of the moribund bodies of an animal we all love. Only two reasons exist 'why decrepit animals fetch a much bigger price on the Continent than in England. One is-that horse-meat is a popular form of food there. (Incidentally the writer saw Belgians cutting steaks out of war horses that fell dead on the roadside.) The other is that there is less sensitiveness about working horses that are past work. Neither is a good reason for exporting live horses. To differ from either is to condone cruelty. The expensive report of the Departmental Com- mittee brings no conviction where it proves its point against the humanitarians and adds unconscious hypo- crisy to cruelty where, as often, its logic is confessed. The truth is that no good reason exists—not even an economic reason—why the horses should not end their lives in this country.
It should not be a Herculean task to put a stop to the traffic. -It is possible that the establishment of an efficient factory for chilling and preserving the meat and making use of the by-products would be in itself sufficient. As things are, the number killed on this side increases, and even the Committee welcome the change. But pre- ventive legislation must accompany the reform if it is to come quickly and certainly. No one desires to interfere needlessly with any export trader. In respect of horses bought for food, these can be exported dead more easily than alive. In respect of horses sold for use and breeding the export consists chiefly of young and valuable horses. The two classes may quite easily be distinguished, in spite of the incomparable ingenuity of horse topers in hoodwinking inspectors. An export duty of £20 would certainly put an end to the trade in old and worn horses. If it was thought that such a tax would interfere with the export of valuable Shires, racehorses or hunters, it would not be difficult to make the requisite exceptions. We would strongly urge the passing of a Bill to this effect. It is more than time that the scandal of the traffic was ended since it cannot be mended. W. B. T.
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