IRELAND'S ECONOMIC TROUBLES : CATTLE TRANSIT [To the Editor of
the ScEcTATos..] SIR,—We are asked by several of your readers in Scotland and Northern Ireland to support the views expressed by the writer of the article " Ireland's Economic Troubles," which appeared in your issue of January 30th.
. May we say, therefore, that from first-hand knowledge the Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Incor- porated) fully endorse the truth of the statement that the " real drift of Ireland's economic troubles " may be discerned in the huge financial loss occasioned by the way in which food animals, including poultry, arc abused from the moment they leave the farms until they mach fhe British markets and slaughterhouses. This loss has been estimated by the trade to be not less than from three to five millions sterling annually ; the cruelty arising from it can be imagined better than it can be described. Since the Ulster Society was reorganized in 1921 it has worked vigorously for reform in Northern Ireland, and following its revelations in 1923 there has been continual public condemnation of the present system, yet, except for a slight improvement in the droving of animals in Belfast, as a result of the Licensing of Drovers by the • City Council, practically nothing is changed, indeed it is no exaggeration to say that the system of transport in vogue to-day is similar to that of 30 or 40 years ago. Surely it is little wonder that the present state of affairs has reduced Ireland, North and South, to the status of third or fourth rate producers of food animals in the British markets, if she has not already lost some of those markets altogther ? Agriculture is our foremost industry, and the marketing of food animals the most important branch of it, yet these animals are handled as if they were pig-iron instead of living flesh and blood. They are transported by road, rail and sea under the Diseases of Animals Acts and Orders, as administered by the Imperial Government, seem- ingly as " goods," there being apparently no limit to the time length of the journey. Responsibillity for death, delay and injury seems impossible to fix. The Board of Trade take no notice. The animals are under a rain of stick-blows practically all the time, they are beaten on the roads, beaten in the fairs, beaten into trucks, beaten if they lie down, beaten to keep them on their feet, beaten into the ships, beaten out again and so on till death.
The mass of evidence which can be produced to support the statement of our Society shows quite conclusively that the reports of the proceedings issued by the authorities under the Diseases of Animals Acts for 1922-28 are liable to misconstruc- tion by those without knowledge of the facts. Either the provisions of these Animal Acts and various Orders and Regu- lations are totally inadequate, or their administration is inefficient. In any case, the Ulster Society believe that the whole system under which live cattle are trapsparted in Great Britain and Ireland demands immediate and drastic Inter- Governmental action.
This most vital matter affects not of ly Ireland but also the
British Isles. The cruelty of the present system is a national disgrace, the economic loss a national disaster.
In conclusion may we say that the Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals consider it legitimate to stress the fact of the economic loss entailed, as in eliminating it the sufferings of the animals will undoubtedly be very considerably lessened.—We are, Sir, &c.,
F. M. HOLMES, M. A. MCLEAN. Honorary Secretaries.
The Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelly to Animals (Incorporated), 14a High Street, Belfast.
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