The Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals

All classes of society, from the rlch society dame whose thoroughbreds aro Btoppcd on the streets to have the bitburr pulled irom their heads, to tha lowest rough whose dog or cock titrht has been broken up by the S. P. C. A., have a lively knowledge of Mr. Bergh. ïhere is hardly a car-dñrsr, a vender, or a hackman on the street3 who cannol reeognize him bv sight, and this not through the aid of pictures and photographs, bat frequent eneoun ters. The ladies of this city presented the society with a banner, upon which ia painted the arms of the society, I resenting a poor, overlonded horae, that had sunk down between the i shafts, and was making an agonized effort to rise, as the driver rained furious blows upon him, In the background the fair angel of niercy is seen coming to the rescue, one hand raiaed in protection, the other holding a ilaming sword, This device was Llr. Bergh's own, and a rnost admirable onc, a3 it appeals to the popular sympathy. It has since been adopted by Italy and Austria. Since its organization the society has prosecuted and convicted 6,809 oüendders, and prevented the abuse of animáis on 16,857 occasions. How uselessly and cruclly the brute creation is made to suffer, one cannot realize until they take a look in the main office of the building. Here are stored instrumenta of torture that suggest an inquisition for animáis not les? horrible than the Spanish of old for men. Clubs and sticks, with kuifeblades and fork-prongs used by drivors: wooden burrs that have been taken from under the collars of horsss on street-ear lines; pieees cf board and rocks with which horses have been beaten and killed; collars, covered with iron spikes, used for training lichting dogs. Stiung on twine as beads are on a string, are dozens of burr-bits, taken off horses of every grada, from the dray to the carriage horse, on which the coaehman bas slyiy inUicted it. These bits are round pieces of leather or coïk, throngh which tacks or finepointed nails are driven, which, pene. trating the head. mailden a horse, and makes him dinplav what is freouently taken for "mettle." The niO3t piteous-looking things are a pair of bull-dogs, Gtufi'od so 83 to preserve the attitude they died in, and showing the horrible injuries thay had sustained in mangling eacii oiher. The blood is left on the hair just as it dried, and with one, the 7h0l0 side of the face had been bitten cff. To people who havo never seen a dog fight, this would convoy a siokenlngly realiotic idea. A group of pigeons were treated in the same way, cnly they snilered by the hand of man. A pair of nghting chickens, with spura and gaffs, were under a glass cage. Their remaics had beea secured in the worst cock-pit oí Erooklyn. The broken forelegs oí a hors3 who was driven in this oondition three weeks, were showa, with uamo oí öunareu bbh inffi doliaVs." -i:i"L,iraost every instance the brutal perpetrator of crime had his name tranecrioed in this unenviable way, with punishment or fine attached. Whvre it is impossible to convey the idea any other way a photograph does it; for instance, Mr. Bergh has more than once found cows so diseased that they could not stand, and when literally in a dying condition hoisted up from the ground by bands that they may be milked, and that milk sold to custoniers. This is only a speciinoD incident. In the slaughter-house a sharp lookout has been kept, and, thanks to the society, many a poor beast has passed mto chops aiid steaks without a pain. English reports show that the cattle from America arrive in a better condition than from any other country, owing to the existence of the S. P. C. A. The highest tribunal of the State, the Court of Appeals, lately sustained the society in a case of hog slaughtering, which is the first instance in this or any other country where the rights of animáis ever roceived the