PERFORMING ANIMALS : CRUELTY OR KINDNESS ?
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—To whom can I write, but to you ? Vested interests are so strong. But not in The Spectator, for fifty-five years' constant reading of it teaches me that here at any rate are sheer courage and fearlessness.
I heard in the wireless on a recent Sunday that the Bishop of Willesden in conducting a service at Olympia expressed the conviction that the training of the animals was entirely done by kindness. How often we have heard this said ; and yet the Blue Book of 1922, containing the evidence from trainers and witnesses before the Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1921-22 is still to be bought for a few pence, and its state- ments have never been contradicted. Let us buy one for our- selves.
Opposite to Olympia a shop exhibits posters showing what the training of animals may often involve. Thousands of leaflets have been distributed each day of the Show. The history of a balancing dog is one of the most vigorous and convincing. It is to be had from the Performing Animals' Defence League, r7 Buckingham Street, London, W.C. r. It was this sort of crime against animals of which evidence was taken by the committee I have mentioned : r. Training a bear by hitting him across the snout with a log. The trainer said the bear knew his master. No. 418.
2. A lion kept five days without food or drink between the lessons with trident and whip. No. 559.
3. A dog hung up by the hind legs and beaten on the stomach with wim a cane. No. 2434.
4. In another case a trainer was seen to " pinch the dog in a very tender part." The cry of the dog was accounted for to the audience as a desire on the dog's part to kiss him. No. 124.
5. An elephant was continually struck with a hook of barbed iron that cut and scratched into the ear. The animal " howled with pain at each stroke."
Need I quote more ?
Lord Auckland said in the House of Lords on March 13th, 1930: " I have listened to trainers boasting of the brutalities they have found it necessary to inflict on the animals they train." The horses which dance in a ring are frequently beaten under the jaw to make them stand on their hind legs. The whip reminds them of what will happen if they fail.
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