| 32present scheme was undertaken, however,
with regard to the ultimate result upon the
unfortunate beasts who should be forced to
participate. The plan intended a contest
between about 300 cowboys, each
to ride two horses alternately.
Each cowboy would lead one horse by the
bridle while he rode the other. What shows
more plainly than anything else that cruelty
was farthest from the minds of the originators
of the enterprise is the condition
imposed upon each contestant that he must
finish the race with the same horses he
started out with. He couldn't ride the first
two horses to death and then kill two more,
and continue the slaughter indefinitely until
he reached the goal.
This strange frontier idea of preserving
the lives of two horses only to make them
last throughout a 700-mile race did not
coincide with President Shortall's theories of
humane treatment of animals. No sooner
did he hear of the intended race
last March than he decided that such a
cruel exhibition must be stopped. The fair
fame of America must not be sullied by the
disgraceful scenes of brutality that marked
the race run from Berlin to Vienna last
year. America at that time led the whole
civilized world in its protests against the cruel
disregard of dumb beasts' sufferings that
were markedly displayed in that contest.
Yet that race was only 300 miles long, while
the distance from Chadron to Chicago is
more than twice as far. President Shortall
recognized the nature of the cowboy, who
seldom is willfully guilty of an act of mean
cruelty, but simply does not stop to think.
That no possible means of averting the
contest might be left untried Mr. Shortall sent
last week to Secretary Weir a letter of
warning, and pointed out that such a race
would be in direct violation of the law of
Illinois.
What Mr. Shortall Wrote.
Here is the letter:
THE ILLINOIS HUMANE SOCIETY, CHICAGO,
MAY 27, 1893.--RESPECTFULLY REQUESTED TO
BE READ TO THOSE CONTEMPLATING THE LONG
DISTANCE RACE BETWEEN CHADRON AND CHICAGO.
HARVEY WEIR, SECRETARY, CHADRON,
NEB. DEAR SIR:--May I ask your attention to
the following law: "Whoever shall be guilty of
cruelty to any animal in any of the ways mentioned
in this section shall be fined not less than
$3 nor more than $200, viz.: First. By overloading,
overdriving, overworking, cruelly beating,
torturing, tormenting, mutilating or cruelly
killing any animal or causing or knowingly
allowing the same to be done." Revd. Stats. Ill.
Crim. Code, chapter 38, div. 1, sec. 78. See also
city ordinances (Chicago, 1890), sec. 2,199 in
which the same law is enacted.
Well known veterinary surgeons state to me,
and will testify if necessary, that is not possible
to make a contest of endurance and speed
between horses for fifty miles--much less 700--
continuously without the infliction of great
suffering upon the contesting animals. When
this fifty miles is increased to 700, it appears to
this civilization of ours to be most cruel and
intolerable. But when, as it is reported, in the
present proposed race from Chadron to Chcago
the result to be attained by the contesting men
is a little eclat and $1,500, all this long procession
of struggle, agony and death not only
appears most unjustifiable, but it clearly demands
the enforcement, to the uttermost, of
the laws violated.
Such violation of law being from hour to
hour, arrest after arrest of the same individual
can and will be made. I may also add that all
conspirators in and abettors of such violation
of law will be arrested, as found, and punished
equally with the principals.
And now having discussed the legal side, may
I venture a word of pleading upon the moral
side of the case. The long-distance race, run
last summer between Berlin and Vienna--a
matter of, I believe, some 300 miles--in which many
noble animals were ridden to death, has aroused
a feeling of indignation throughout the civilized
world--England, France, America, universally;
Germany and Austria as far as they openly
dared--and when it was declared in some newspapers,
some months ago, that a similar race
was contemplated here, the protest against it
was expressed with most impressive and emphatic
force--that our country, claiming to
lead the way in the humanities, should never be
disgraced by such a spectacle. These are the
words, and this society has been called upon by
nearly every state in in the union to interfere.
Now, I beg of you, gentlemen, to listen to this
voice, no matter whether you know it to be right
or deem it to be wrong. Give up this race, like
kind gentlemen and good citizens--it is easy for
men who are brave and manly to withdraw from
a false position-- and come to us, see our great
epitome of the civilization of the age, in such a
way that we can welcome you, shake hands with
you and admire you. Yours truly,
JOHN G. SHORTALL,
President Illinois Humane Society. | 32present scheme was undertaken, however,
with regard to the ultimate result upon the
unfortunate beasts who should be forced to
participate. The plan intended a contest
between about 300 cowboys, each
to ride two horses alternately.
Each cowboy would lead one horse by the
bridle while he rode the other. What shows
more plainly than anything else that cruelty
was farthest from the minds of the originators
of the enterprise is the condition
imposed upon each contestant that he must
finish the race with the same horses he
started out with. He couldn't ride the first
two horses to death and then kill two more,
and continue the slaughter indefinitely until
he reached the goal.
This strange frontier idea of preserving
the lives of two horses only to make them
last throughout a 700-mile race did not
coincide with President Shortall's theories of
humane treatment of animals. No sooner
did he hear of the intended race
last March than he decided that such a
cruel exhibition must be stopped. The fair
fame of America must not be sullied by the
disgraceful scenes of brutality that marked
the race run from Berlin to Vienna last
year. America at that time led the whole
civilized world in its protests against the cruel
disregard of dumb beasts' sufferings that
were markedly displayed in that contest.
Yet that race was only 300 miles long, while
the distance from Chadron to Chicago is
more than twice as far. President Shortall
recognized the nature of the cowboy, who
seldom is willfully guilty of an act of mean
cruelty, but simply does not stop to think.
That no possible means of averting the
contest might be left untried Mr. Shortall sent
last week to Secretary Weir a letter of
warning, and pointed out that such a race
would be in direct violation of the law of
Illinois.
What Mr. Shortall Wrote.
Here is the letter:
THE ILLINOIS HUMANE SOCIETY, CHICAGO,
MAY 27, 1893.--RESPECTFULLY REQUESTED TO
BE READ TO THOSE CONTEMPLATING THE LONG
DISTANCE RACE BETWEEN CHADRON AND CHICAGO.
HARVEY WEIR, SECRETARY, CHADRON,
NEB. DEAR SIR:--May I ask your attention to
the following law: "Whoever shall be guilty of
cruelty to any animal in any of the ways mentioned
in this section shall be fined not less than
$3 nor more than $200, viz.: First. By overloading,
overdriving, overworking, cruelly beating,
torturing, tormenting, mutilating or cruelly
killing any animal or causing or knowingly
allowing the same to be done." Revd. Stats. Ill.
Crim. Code, chapter 38, div. 1, sec. 78. See also
city ordinances (Chicago, 1890), sec. 2,199 in
which the same law is enacted.
Well known veterinary surgeons state to me,
and will testify if necessary, that is not possible
to make a contest of endurance and speed
between horses for fifty miles--much less 700--
continuously without the infliction of great
suffering upon the contesting animals. When
this fifty miles is increased to 700, it appears to
this civilization of ours to be most cruel and
intolerable. But when, as it is reported, in the
present proposed race from Chadron to Chcago
the result to be attained by the contesting men
is a little eclat and $1,500, all this long procession
of struggle, agony and death not only
appears most unjustifiable, but it clearly demands
the enforcement, to the uttermost, of
the laws violated.
Such violation of law being from hour to
hour, arrest after arrest of the same individual
can and will be made. I may also add that all
conspirators in and abettors of such violation
of law will be arrested, as found, and punished
equally with the principals.
And now having discussed the legal side, may
I venture a word of pleading upon the moral
side of the case. The long-distance race, run
last summer between Berlin and Vienna--a
matter of, I believe, some 300 miles--in which many
noble animals were ridden to death, has aroused
a feeling of indignation throughout the civilized
world--England, France, America, universally;
Germany and Austria as far as they openly
dared--and when it was declared in some newspapers,
some months ago, that a similar race
was contemplated here, the protest against it
was expressed with most impressive and emphatic
force--that our country, claiming to
lead the way in the humanities, should never be
disgraced by such a spectacle. These are the
words, and this society has been called upon by
nearly every state in in the union to interfere.
Now, I beg of you, gentlemen, to listen to this
voice, no matter whether you know it to be right
or deem it to be wrong. Give up this race, like
kind gentlemen and good citizens--it is easy for
men who are brave and manly to withdraw from
a false position-- and come to us, see our great
epitome of the civilization of the age, in such a
way that we can welcome you, shake hands with
you and admire you. Yours truly,
JOHN G. SHORTALL,
President Illinois Humane Society. |
