6 JUNE 1914, Page 16

NAPLES SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS.

[To rns EDITOR or ran "Sp.-room" J venture once more to beg you to find room in your columns for an appeal on behalf of the Naples Society for the Protection of Animals. During the last year its work was carried on with great vigour, of which the following statistics are a proof

Carts and other vehicles to which extra animals were attached ... 41,534 Carts properly balanced ... 14,008 Carts from which persons were made to alight ... 57,372 Carts of which the load was diminished ... 4,686 Confiscated sticks, stakes, goads, spikes on sides 40,627 Relieved animals that were being carried head downwards with their legs tied together, birds played with by children, &c. ... 22,972 Prosecutions for working in an unfit state, for beating, starving, stabbing, driving furiously, overloading, &c.... ... 6,402 Horses, mules, and donkeys killed because injured or unfit for work ... 138 Dogs and cats painlessly destroyed ... ... 2,648

The Society tries in every way to promote the humane treat- ment of animals, especially by horse and donkey parades and by giving rewards to such of the police as show zeal in the suppression of cruelty, and it is hoped that we shall be able this year to have Bands of Mercy formed in the municipal schools.

I will not trespass on your space with further details, but will only add an earnest appeal to all lovers of animals to give ns the necessary pecuniary aid to carry on our work, which, with the constant development of building operations around Naples, becomes always more vast and arduous. Contribu- tions may be sent to Mr. Percy Carew Essex, Hon. Secretary and Treasurer of the Society in England, 26 Charles Street, St. James's, London, S.W.; to Captain Basso (Director), 8 Via Vittoria, Naples; or to myself, at 7 Chiatamone, Naples.— I am, Sir, &c., E. L. M. MELE Beam:

(nee Mackworth Praed), President of the Naples Society for the Protection of Animals.