By W. ROBINSON
Imagine yourself with your ankles bound and your arms in a strait-jacket, having some huge creature toss you bodily out into a river or brushy field for some equally huge creature to find and carry in his mouth back to creature number one. All of this accompanied by shrill blasts of a whistle, firing of guns and loud angry shouts when creature number two seemed to be in danger of not locating you quickly enough.
When he does manage to find you, he picks you up in his teeth and carries you back to his master who promptly tosses you back out again for another try. Eventually your exhausted body, if there is any life left in it, is stuffed back into the sack in which you arrived and another victim is dragged out to take your place. Does it all sound “far out"? Well, it's not if you happen to be a duck, or a pigeon or even a Pheasant who has been unlucky enough to have been raised or purchased by certain trainers of gun dogs.
These sportsmen (?) apparently see nothing cruel or inhuman about their practise of using live birds in this way. One even suggested that the ducks “look forward to it”. “Gun dogs”, they say, “have gentle mouths, the birds aren't hurt". Some of the dogs I have watched being trained in this way obviously had not yet reached that stage in their schooling, since the birds, when they were finished with them, were bloodied and bruised, if not dead. We have seen the bodies of beautiful pheasants left lying in the ditch when the trainers had left the field.
While it may be true that not all of the birds are damaged in this way, it is certainly true that some are but aside from the physical abuse they may suffer, there must be considerable mental anguish involved from the birds point of view. Is that not worthy of human consideration? Don't ducks, pigeons or pheasants feel fear or panic as their legs are strapped tightly together with rubber thongs and their wings are either stripped of their flight feathers or bound with adhesive tape? They are then stuffed into a sack, along with several other unfortunate cellmates, and trundled off to some strange river bank where their owner partakes of his God-given rights to abuse his fellow creatures. Don't expect help from the S.P.C.A., either. They came up with a great cop-out. “These birds have been raised by the gun dog people.” they say, “They are not wild animals. There is nothing we can do.” Are not cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and cats also raised by their owners? Since when has the S.P.C.A. hesitated to step in when cruelty and abuse has been heaped upon one of these? It seems like strange reasoning.
While it may be true that not all of the birds are damaged in this way, it is certainly true that some are But aside from the physical abuse they may suffer, there must be considerable mental anguish involved from the birds point of view. Is that not worthy of human consideration? Don't ducks, pigeons or pheasants feel fear or panic as their legs are strapped tightly together with rubber thongs and their wings are either stripped of their flight feathers or bound with adhesive tape? They are then stuffed into a sack, along with several other unfortunate cellmates, and trundled off to some strange river bank where their owner partakes of his God-given rights to abuse his fellow creatures. Don't expect help from the S.P.C.A., either. They came up with a great cop-out. “These birds have been raised by the gun dog people.” they say, “They are not wild animals. There is nothing we can do.” Are not cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and cats also raised by their owners? Since when has the S.P.C.A. hesitated to step in when cruelty and abuse has been heaped upon one of these? It seems like strange reasoning.
The R.C.M.P. and the Conservation Officer have expressed their abhorrence of this method of dog-training but they, too, say there is no law against it, so, figuratively speaking, their hands are tied, too. We are told one must be able to prove that this practise is causing pain to the birds and that if a bird is badly injured, all a trainer has to do is wring it's neck and proceed with the training using the dead bird. Since the bird is now dead, it would be feeling no pain. End of case. I suppose now, we will be accused of being “bleeding hearts”. But when man’s heart ceases to bleed for the suffering of his fellow-creatures, then we will all have reason to fear him. A man without compassion is a man to avoid. Especially if you happen to be a duck or a pigeon or a pheasant or even a gundog.
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