KINDNESS TO ANIMALS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—After noticing the great change for the better in the treatment of animals in Italy since the commencement of the Mussolini regime and the recent expansion in the activities of the Italian society for the protection of animals, one cannot help wondering to what extent the decent treatment of animals is due to education and to what extent to natural feelings.
We in England have always regarded ourselves as vastly superior to the Latin races in this respect. Yet the humane slaughter of animals, which is obligatory in Italy in every slaughterhouse, is not enforced in England. Vivisection, too, which is to be prescribed by law in Italy as from November next, is also tolerated by us.
Is it not possible that our (partial) superiority in this respect is due fur more to the educational zeal of enthusiasts banded together in organizations like the R.S.P.C.A. than to any particular inborn virtue ?
Our past of bear-baiting, cock-fighting, bearing-reins, &c., and the recent change for the better in the Italian treatment of dumb creatures due to the causes noted above, certainly lend weight to this theory and show how much such organizations as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and its Italian counterpart can do and
how necessary they are.—I am, Sir, &c., CECIL. POWELL. Anticoli-Coarrado, Italy.
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