It is also a hundred years since the Scottish Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals came into being. Though both the English and Irish societies were founded earlier, the date may be called historical. The Scottish humani- tarians have on the whole been free from the excesses of sentimentality that often do harm to the movement. Their energies have been spent chiefly in stopping obvious abuses rather than in girding at such practices as the established field- sports.. In the report celebrating the centenary year nothing is more interesting than the portraits of those distinguished men and women who have done service for the Society: Scotland has long preserved a humanitarian aristocracy in the true sense of the term. Now that mechanisation has dealt the coup de grace to the old-horse trade perhaps the Society might have time for the domestic cat. Thousands of these animals now run wild. They were cherished as kittens, and then discarded in their less attractive years. One result is that they destroy every bird's nest in many suburban districts where birds would else especially flourish.
* *. * *
Previous page
