Horse Stories, and Stories of Other Animals

by Thomas Wallace Knox

The Society's protest had its effect, and those who clipped their horses after that had the humanity to provide them with blankets.

“'Glanders and farcy, those contagious diseases, incurable in man as well as in beast, are not by any means as prevalent as they once were. And this is owing to the work of the Society in compelling people to keep their stables in good condition. Those diseases are the result of neglect, bad food, and damp, ill-ventilated stables.

“'Through the efforts of the Society an element of humanity has been introduced into the treatment of the cattle sent to New York for slaughter. The treatment these poor creatures got at one time was simply barbarous. We have officers at all the stock yards and abattoirs, and they make it their business to see that the animals are properly fed and cared for, and that their quarters are kept in a cleanly, healthy condition. A great reform has been consummated, too, by the Society, in the method of transporting live stock.

“'And speaking of live stock, reminds me of an incident that happened in the early days of the Society. Mr. Bergh—and how we all will miss him now that he is gone—was going through Chambers Street one day, when he saw two men leading a cow and her calf. The calf was literally skin and bones. There was a rope about the cow's neck and another about the calf's. The cow's udder was fearfully distended with the milk within it, and the calf made continual efforts to get at it, but the man pulled the poor little thing away. Well, Mr. Bergh stopped the man, took the rope from the calf's neck, and the moment he did so the famished thing made a dash for that distended udder and drank its fill. The men protested, but Mr. Bergh was inexorable, and he stood there during twenty minutes, the center of a crowd of five hundred people, while the poor calf got the first good square meal of its life.

“'Dog fights and cock fights—brutal, cruel, demoralizing exhibitions—were quite a feature of metroplitan life at one time, but are, happily, becoming more and more rare. People who like that so-called 'sport,' to indulge their propensity are now found to sneak off like so many thieves or felons to some stable or loft in the country, and there have their 'fun' in the constant fear of interruption by Mr. Bergh or of the police.

“'The Society, at one time, had great trouble with the street railroad companies, which persisted in driving lame, crippled, sick and disabled animals; in salting their tracks and overloading their cars to a fearful degree. But there has been a marked reform in all these particulars, and I think I can say the car horses of the city to-day are in very good condition.

“There can be no doubt that the twenty-two years of the Society's existence have been fraught with great good to the animals that minister to the needs of man. Our Society has grown to enormous proportions, and has branches in every State and city, and almost every town and village, in the country. Since its organization the Society in New York has prosecuted 13,850 cases in the courts, suspended 35,108 disabled animals from work, humanely destroyed 24,099 horses disabled past recovery, and removed 4444 disabled horses from the streets in its ambulances. Last year the Society prosecuted 797 cases of cruelty in the courts, suspended 3456 disabled animals from work, destroyed 2546 disabled horses, destroyed 1102 small animals disabled past recovery, removed 522 disabled horses from the streets in ambulances, and received and investigated 3773 complaints.

“It must not be supposed that the existence of so many cases of cruelty indicates an increase in the cruel treatment of animals; the large figure is rather due to the greater facilities the Society now possesses for the detection of such offences.

“Our paid officers are of course limited in number, but every humane person in New York can be said to be a detective of the Society. We receive a great many complaints, investigate them thoroughly, and then report to the complainants the result of such investigations. People write to tell us a certain man is in the habit of beating his horse or of feeding swill to his cows, or that a dog is dying in a vacant lot up-town, or that boys are in the habit of stoning birds in a certain locality. All these things we look into, and when we catch the guilty parties practicing the cruelty complained of we arrest and prosecute them. With all these aids it is clear the work of the Society has been very much simplified and more thorough, but it can be much more so by a further cooperation of the public. That we look for and hope to obtain.”