Country Life
AN ESCAPE FROM CRUELTY.
One word more, not on the cruelty and illegality of steel- traps set in the open, but on the alternatives. The cry for reform is not to be allowed to die down without action. Comparatively humane traps have been invented and are manufactured—one catches without hurt, one kills instan- taneously. More than this : it is perfectly easy in many ways to do with little pain what is now done with much ; and at the worst to save birds and domestic animals from agony and in some species local extinction. There are two methods of mending the abuse ; and pressure is to be brought on both central and local bodies to insist on reform. One is to forbid the steel-trap altogether ; the other to license trappers and insist on the use of certain humane traps, either those now in existence or other forms to be perfected. In any case drastic punishment with the refusal of permission to trap again should be meted out to those who break the two present regukti ms, that steel traps may not be set in the open and must be visited within twelve hours.
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