difficult of the unending tasks of the legislator.


OUR OWN CRUELTIES

At first blush it may seem not only unnecessary, but even
indecent, to discuss such a proposition as the elevation of
cruelty to the rank of a human right. Unnecessary, because no
vivisector confesses to a love of cruelty for its own sake or
claims any general fundamental right to be cruel. Indecent,
because there is an accepted convention to repudiate cruelty; and
vivisection is only tolerated by the law on condition that, like
judicial torture, it shall be done as mercifully as the nature of
the practice allows. But the moment the controversy becomes
embittered, the recriminations bandied between the opposed
parties bring us face-to-face with some very ugly truths. On one
occasion I was invited to speak at a large Anti-Vivisection
meeting in the Queen's Hall in London. I found myself on the
platform with fox hunters, tame stag hunters, men and women whose
calendar was divided, not by pay days and quarter days, but by
seasons for killing animals for sport: the fox, the hare, the
otter, the partridge and the rest having each its appointed date
for slaughter. The ladies among us wore hats and cloaks and head-
dresses obtained by wholesale massacres, ruthless trappings,
callous extermination of our fellow creatures. We insisted on our
butchers supplying us with white veal, and were large and
constant consumers of pate de foie gras; both comestibles being
obtained by revolting methods. We sent our sons to public schools
where indecent flogging is a recognized method of taming the
young human animal. Yet we were all in hysterics of indignation