CATTLE-SHIPS.*
FRIENDS of animals have to thank the Sailors' Friend for the moat complete exposure of the abominable cruelty of the Transatlantic cattle traffic that has yet appeared. It was Mr. Plimsoll's concern for the welfare of sailors which prompted him to inquire into the circumstances of a traffic which is accountable for many wrecks and a serious loss of human life. In his opening remarks he tells us that he had often read paragraphs in the newspapers announcing the arrival of ships after stormy passages and losses of many cattle overboard ; but it was not till the steamship 'Erin,' which sailed from New York last December with 574 cattle and 74 men on board, was reported to be missing, that he made up his mind to inquire into this branch of the shipping business. Probably Mr. Plimsoll has not been in the habit of reading the annual Veterinary Report of the Agricultural Department, now the Board of Agriculture, or he would have seen matter- of-fact statements of losses among the cattle shipped to this country from the United States and Canada, which might have caused him to suspect gross mismanagement. For example, he would have learned that 2,219 cattle in 1886, 3,447 in 1887, and 2,057 in 1888, were thrown overboard, landed dead, or so badly injured that they had to be killed imme- diately after being landed. It is true that these numbers are small in proportion to the totals of which they are parts; but they are serious enough in themselves, and very little imagina- tion is necessary to convey the impression of an enormous amount of suffering among the survivors, as well as among the animals thrown or washed overboard. The most vivid imagination, however, would fail to depict such horrors as have been described by eye-witnesses. Two accounts from pas- sengers in cattle-ships, which appeared in the London Echo and the Liverpool Mercury a few months ago, are quoted by Mr. Plimsoll, and almost incredible as the dreadful details are, he has received full confirmation of them from men who have witnessed identical scenes of brutality and agony. With the help of his brother in New York, and the representative of the Press, a newspaper of that city, Mr. Plimsoll has been able to obtain photographs as well as details, showing how the cattle- ships are loaded. This evidence proves beyond all question that the animals must stiffer severely, even if the sea is as calm as a duck-pond, and that wholesale mutilation and death are inevitable in the event of rough weather being encountered. In the first place, the poor beasts are so
Cattle-ShiPs. By Samuel PlimeolL London : Kogan Paul, Trench, Trdbner, and Co.
closely packed and tied that they cannot lie down, and so they have to keep on their feet during the whole voyage of a fort- night or more. Those who know anything of the habits of cattle, and especially of fat beasts, will readily imagine how severely they must suffer by being kept standing so long. They are packed closely, partly to economise space and allow of low charges for shipment, and partly that they may hold each other up and have no room to fight and gore each other. If any of the animals sink down from exhaustion, as they frequently do, they are liable to be trampled on by their fellows, and mutilated or stifled ; and the most cruel tortures are inflicted on them by their attendants to keep them on their legs, such as beating them on the head with sticks or iron buckets, prodding them with pitchforks, or pouring paraffin oil into their ears.
We have been informed by an Englishman, formerly a farmer, who came over from America recently in a cattle- ship, that although the weather was not exceptionally stormy, the sufferings of the animals between decks were sickening to witness. But these fair-weather- sufferings sink into insignificance when compared with storm agonies. When the sea runs high, the hatchways have to be closed ; and if they are kept shut long, most of the beasts are stifled.. This, however, is the easiest death that they have to endure ; and if there were no preliminaries, the lot of the wretched. creatures would be a comparatively happy one. But long before death comes to them, they are pitched about by the action of the Atlantic rollers until they become a struggling mass, goring and trampling upon each other in the most horrible manner. Our informant, who saw only a mild example of this kind, as the rough weather he encountered did not last long, declared that the sight of the struggling and dying beasts, and the sound of their shrieks of agony, formed the most desolating experience that he had ever passed through.. But those who have been on board a cattle-ship, when it has been pitched about for days, the hatches being necessarily closed all the time, tell of bodies ripped open, horns torn off, legs and backs broken, and other mutilations. And when the hatchways are opened, that the dead cattle may be drawn out, the scene and the stench are disgusting beyond description._ Mr. Plimsoll has a great deal to say about the deck-loads of cattle, and no wonder, as ships are made pretty well un- manageable in rough weather when their decks are covered with cattle-shedding. Nor is this all, for he gives instances of the boats being so displaced by the shedding, that in the event of sudden wreck, as when a vessel is run down, it would be impossible to get at them in time. In a gale these- structures are sometimes swept overboard, with all the cattle- and any attendants who may be in them. For the safety of the top-heavy ship, this is the best thing that could happen.. Nevertheless, it is disgraceful that ships should be so loaded that their safety in a storm is dependent upon such a catastrophe. The first officer of one vessel, built upon in this dangerous manner, which Mr. Plimsoll looked over, in reply to an expression of wonder that shipowners should expose cattle to so much suffering and men to such deadly peril by overloading their vessels in this way, bitterly said : " There is no cruelty to the cattle and no risk to the men that will stop them, if there is money in it." In two ships that Mr. Plimsoll saw, the very poop was covered with shedding, so that four tiers of cattle might be carried,. —two on the deck, and two below. One ship, boarded by the Commissioner of the New York Press, had her deck completely covered from stem to stern with sheds, over which were piled bales of hay, adding materially to the height of the superstructure and its resistance to the wind.. The reporter asked one of the sailors how the crew could possibly handle a vessel so encumbered in a gale, with seas. breaking over her ; and the man replied that he did not know, as he had never been to sea in such a ship before, and was only going that time because he wanted to get his family to' Liverpool, and could not get a passage in any other ship. He said also that ships like that never had the same crew twice, the hardships of one voyage being enough for them. The crews were always made up, he added, of men who wanted to• get back to England, but had no money, and were willing to take big risks in order to reach home. Referring to the system of overloading shipswith cattle, one correspondent of the Press wrote :—" You will find a lot of opposition from shippers and owners who make money out of it; but I dare say there
not a poor devil of a seaman who has been before the mast on one of these floating hells that will not bid you God-speed in your work from the bottom of his heart." We will quote the description given by the Press of the case of one deck-
loaded steamer, the 'Iowa,' which narrowly escaped founder- ing, not because it is the worst in the book—for it is far from that—but because it is a short one:— "She sailed from New York early in the present [last] winter with 150 head of cattle on deck. Off the Banks she encountered heavy weather. For two days she rolled and pitched, during • which time her deck-load of living, suffering beasts was thrown from side to side, goring each other with their horns. Scores of them were trampled underfoot, until finally a mighty wave struck the vessel, and the entire deck-structure was washed away, and with it the 150 cattle. The shifting of the deck-load caused the vessel to careen badly. In her hold, upon temporary platforms built up on each side, were 300 other cattle. In their struggles, the staging was thrown down, and the 300 beasts were thrown to the bottom of the hold. For a while Pandemonium reigned, and the tortured creatures bellowed and struggled, trampling and goring each others' lives out, until the surviving ones sank ex- hausted. The vessel then lay almost on her beam-ends. For- tnnately, the wind subsided. She was righted after her hatchways had been opened, and all that mass of dead and dying cattle thrown overboard ; but her escape was deemed little short of miraculous."
In the case of the lost ship Erin,' according to the New York paper, 252 cattle were carried on the upper and 275 on the main deck, rendering her top-heavy. Among the instances of losses mentioned by Mr. Plimsoll are all but 33 out of 680 in one vessel, all but 16 out of 276 in another, and all but 14 out of 360 in a third.
One of the worst features of the system under notice is connected with a rule made by the Insurance Companies. If an injured animal is slaughtered, they will not pay the insurance- money. Therefore, no matter what agonies a mutilated beast has to endure, and however certain its death is, it must be left to linger on until it dies a " natural death." One case is mentioned in which an ox had both forelegs broken and one horn torn off, in addition to other injuries. It was dragged on to the deck, and lay there suffering the most excruciating pain for thirty hours, until it died of exhaustion. This rule of the Insurance Companies is a monstrous one, and ought to be prohibited by law. If the transport of live cattle across the Atlantic is to be allowed at all in future, it should be com- pulsory for every cattle-ship to carry a veterinary officer, who should be authorised to have every badly injured beast killed, and his certificate should suffice to secure the insurance. There might be a refrigerating-chamber in every ship, so that the meat of such cattle could be preserved. More effectual as a means of ensuring proper accommodation for the cattle, and the prevention of avoidable suffering, would be a law
compelling shipowners. to be responsible for the value of all .cattle injured or lost. They can carry valuable breeding
stock safely enough. It is all a question of expense ; and if shippers cannot afford to pay for the safe transport of their animals, they should not be allowed to send them alive at all. Mr. Plimsoll would entirely prohibit the transport of beef-cattle across the Atlantic, and has had a prohibitive clause inserted in the Merchant Shipping Act Amendment (No. 2) Bill, now before Parliament. One portion of his little book is devoted to arguments showing that the live-stock traffic from America or Canada is entirely unnecessary. He has spent days in the London Meat Market, getting evidence from salesmen and others, and he has come to the conclusion that the only reason why the live-stock traffic is kept up, is that butchers will give more for cattle slaughtered on this side, than for those killed in America or Canada, because they can sell the meat of the _former as prime English or Scotch, whereas the carcasses brought in cold chambers betray their origin. He was assured that the meat killed in America, which is not frozen, but preserved at a temperature two degrees above freezing- point, is superior to that of the fevered and tortured beasts killed on this side, and as it is sold to consumers at a lower price, no public interest is involved in the main- tenance of the cruel system which he would prohibit. There is another point which Mr. Plimsoll mentions, but makes light of. Animals received at our ports alive can be held over from one market to another, if prices are not satisfactory, whereas the beef is commonly sold at once, for any price that can be obtained for it. It is pointed out, however, that the frozen meat sent here from Australasia and the River Plate is often kept for months in freezing-chambers, and that American beef could be kept, though not frozen, if cold chambers were provided for it. We doubt the disposition of Parliament to adopt Mr. Plimsoll's proposal, and we fear there is no chance of his Bill being discussed during the present Session; but the haters of cruelty to animals in this country are numerous enough to insist upon the enormities exposed in the book before us being stopped. It is not too late to appoint a Select Committee to inquire into the system, with a view to legislation next Session, and we trust that such an appoint- ment will be proposed before Parliament separates.
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