THE " SPECTATOR" AND CRUELTY
IN response to a communication sent out from our Circulation Department we received the following letter :-
" I shall certainly not nominate or recommend any friends to subscribe to the Spectator, and when my present subscription has run out I shall cease to subscribe, as I do not wish to have anything to do with any paper or Society which encourages cruelty to animals —which is evidently the Spectator's policy according to the Editorial Note following the 1-ter on Stag Hunting in your issue of May 4th last.—E. J. Heatusow, Dulverton.
The Spectator has on many occasions been attacked for ex- cessive humanitarianism, but as far as we can recollect this is the first time that we have been accused of " encouraging cruelty to animals." The footnote to which the writer objects appeared on May 4th as a comment on a letter from Mr. E. W. Heady, of Exmoor. It ran as follows :— . . . We have visited many of the large Natural Reserves—or Parks, as they are called—in Canada and the United States where wild deer and other animals are preserved. When their numbers have to be kept down the task is undertaken by skilled keepers. We see no reason why one day Exmoor and other suitable districts in these islands should not be made into " National Parks." When it became necessary to thin out the deer, the task might well be left to the keepers or verderers.—En. Spectator.
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