Of Impounding Animals. The diabolical infamy and stupidity of men who keep animals without adequate food to support their strength, or even their existence, has been feelingly adverted to by Lord Erskine;" I have had complaints of this abuse from all parts of the country. The notice to the owner is seldom served, and thus the poor innocent animal is left to starve in the pound. As far as an animal is considered merely as property, this may be all very well, and the owner must find him out at his peril, but when the animal is looked to, the impounder ought to feed him, and charge it to the owner, as part of the damages."
"Can no law," says Miss Williams, "succour that wretched horse, worn to the bone from famine and fatigue, lashed by his cruel tyrant into exertion beyond his strength, while he drags, in some vile vehicle, six persons, besides his merciless owner? For myself, I confess, that at the view of such spectacles, the charm of nature seems suddenly dissolved, to me the fields lose their verdure, and the woods their pleasantness; nor is my indignation confined to the unrelenting driver of these loaded machines; I consider the passengers who tartly assent to the pain he inflicts, as more than his accomplices in barbarity."
Bloomfield beautifully contrasts the case of Dobbin, the Farmer's Horse, with that of the Post Horse; in the following lines, from his "Farmer's Boy."
Short-sighted Dobbin! thou canst only see
the trivial hardships that encompass thee:
thy chains are freedom and thy toils repose.
Could the poor Post.horse tell thee all his woes;
shew thee his bleeding shoulders, and unfold
the dreadful anguish he endures for gold:
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