Letters to the Editor

ANIMAL TURNS [To the Editor of the Srxccieroa.1

thank you for having drawn my attention to a very

excellent article in the Spectator of October 4th, entitled " World Day for Animals," by Major Yeats-Brown, in which be refers to myself; and quotes an advertisement published in the Brighton Herald, saying that " animal lovers will note with relief that Lord Lonsdale is President of Mr. Mills's Circus." Two paragraphs later Major Yeats-Brown asks : " How do Lord Lonsdale and Mr. Mills know that the animals exhibited in their circus have been kindly treated ? " I have declared time after time—and there is probably nobody who has had more experience in the circus world and in

" breaking " than I in days gone by—that the reason I accepted Mr. Mills's invitation to become President of the Olympia Circus was that I was anxious to encourage, and do everything in my power to encourage, all the animal tricks (of which there are hundreds) which arc done entirely through kindness and the aptitude of each individual animal for certain tricks.

I know perfectly well what tricks can be taught—and

are taught—by kindness, and I know equally well what tricks are taught otherwise, and it was solely on condition that Mr. Mills submitted to me the animal tricks that were going to be performed in his circus that I undertook to be President. Because when you go to the circus you may be quite sure that there are no tricks the production of which involved any question of brute force. But when you go into the question of " cruelty " you are opening an enormous door, and it is very difficult to know where cruelty begins and where it ends. When you begin to break your cart-horses, or your harness-horses—they have to be broken for the purposes of utility—is that cruelty ? With horses, yearlings have to be broken : they have to have the tack on them : they have to go through all the various forms of training, which are not cruel but which " make " them and render them serviceable animals.

I was rather amused the other day to hear a lady, who is

very interested in eats and who writes very furiously and absurdly against animal-training and the cruelty of sport, say that two of her cats " had never missed bringing in a rat that they had killed at night" ! But if it is wrong to keep a hound to hunt a fox, or a terrier to kill a stoat, is it not equally cruel to keep a cat to kill a rat ? Cats are, by nature, the most cruel of beasts with their prey—but an argument of this sort is not quite what I want at the moment. I am writing now in the interest, and defence, of the circus. There are many, many horse tricks which are almost taught themselves. Schumann and other exhibitors are very fond of their animals and take the greatest trouble with them, and at all these celebrated shows and haute ecole exhibitions there is no necessity for cruelty. I have ponies here now, and one which I ride at Newmarket, which, if I drop my hat, will pick it up, stand wherever you like, or lie down if you want it to do so. There is no cruelty in doing that, as it partly does it itself, but these are amusing and interesting incidents for children, as are all the horses performing in a circus, and, as a rule, it affects much more the circus acrobats than it does the horses themselves.

Major Yeats-Brown asks what I think of the accident that occurred recently. I do not know whether it is giving away what is often my own knowledge of the department of the lion-tamers, but perhaps it is little realized that most of the lions and tigers in circuses are taken away from their mothers when but three or four days old and reared by spaniels or retrievers : that they have never seen a jungle or forest ; that they have all been bred as household pets as their mothers have been for most of their lives, and they are taught exactly the same as everyone teaches a puppy. And when you go into the question of " cruelty " you go into such an enormous one that it is impossible to analyse it. What about breaking retrievers for shooting purposes ? Some men have a wonderful aptitude for breaking animals without using any force, but amongst others, and especially some of the gamekeepers, are the roughest people that could possibly be found, far more severe with their dogs than is the case in any circus. The same with sheepdogs—and sheepdogs are almost a neccs- sity of life, especially in the hills where there is often snow where the various flocks of sheep lie—some of the shepherds can teach their dogs most exactly, as is shown by the public trials where sheepdog competitions for penning sheep are given. But there are others who are really cruel, though it does not follow that because some are cruel all are cruel.

I have always supported the circus, having made inquiries as to the trainers and others, and so long as I am satisfied that there is no cruelty in the training of the animals, so long shall I support Mr. Mills, than whom there is nobody in this world who would hate cruelty more, and he travels many hundreds

of miles for the purpose of seeing an exhibition before he engages it. I know from trainers abroad that be is most particular as to this.

When you go into the question of traps and the killing of animals, it is another difficult matter to decide when cruelty begins and when it ends. Is not the whole life of an animal or bird one of cruelty ? Is it not a fact that almost every animal lives on some other animal, and every bird on some thing that exists in life ? You have got the eagle, which lives on his prey. You have the peregrine, that also lives on the de- struction of other animals and birds. You have your pet cat, which is just the same. You have weasels and stoats and foxes that live entirely by what they themselves kill, and I should never have any hesitation in killing any animal that lives itself by hunting, for I do not believe that these animals have the fear they are supposed to have when being hunted themselves. I am sure that a great many foxes have not. I think that a rabbit in a hole that is being ferreted has much more fear than has any fox hunted by hounds.

Again, in Major Yeats-Brown's article he talks of " cap- tivity," and quite rightly. I have myself not the slightest objection to any animals that have been bred in a zoo re- maining there if they have never known any other life, but I am one of those individuals who think it is utterly wrong for animals caught wild in the jungle—perhaps four or five years old—to be transported to imprisonment for life.

Major Yeats-Brown refers to the thousands of animals that are trapped. His reference to seals and the young ones being " trodden on until they bark for their mothers," is evidently either an absolute misrepresentation of the facts or they have been misunderstood. As it happens I know the Aleutian Islands (where these seals are obtained), having lived on

them, and no such practice as this takes place. The seals are driven up by the natives, who use but little force, and all go

back on to the land, where they have a sort of wooden trap or enclosure into which the seals are driven. The natives then knock them on the head with clubs, which I admit is terrible, but there is no such idea as treading on a baby seal in order to produce the mother, because if the mother was nursing the young seal she would not have a coat worth

selling ! This is really a far better way than that in which we kill our cattle in our slaughter-houses, for the seals are killed instantaneously, and it is really a quick and painless death. If it means terror and fear, what then do our slaughter-houses mean ? When you complain of people wearing fur skins that are obtained in this way you might just as well object to the wearing of boots, for your furs are of sealskin while your boots arc made from the skins of cattle I I quite agree with Major Yeats-Brown as to rabbit traps, but how else can you catch rabbits ? A snare is a much more severe death than trapping, because in a trap, if caught by the leg, the leg becomes absolutely numbed, but in a snare it is not. All animals such as these have to be destroyed for every reason, which Major Yeats-Brown states, but I do not see any reason for the abolition of the circus—where kindly acts by animals, as well as so many human acts, can be done—because there are, and undoubtedly are, cruel animal trainers abroad.

I want it to be most distinctly understood that when refer- ring to circuses, and especially those with which I have been associated, I am alluding only to the big and accepted ones of England, Italy, Spain and Sweden. I in no way bold any brief for local and travelling menageries, for I fear I dislike them owing to their continual movements and endosed cages.