Page:Henry Stephens Salt - A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays.pdf/103

Rh be justifiable, the latter can never be so. But still there is so much similarity between the two, that it is almost impossible to get people to think of them separately. “If they were called upon to put an end to pigeon-shooting,” said Earl Fortescue in the debate in the House of Lords, before alluded to, “they might next be called upon to put an end to the slaughter of live stock.” They might, indeed. Those who detest cruelty will not cease to call for its abolition, in whatever form it may manifest itself. Sport is perhaps the most silly and vulgar of all forms of cruelty ; but we must not be surprised if it lingers on until men have learnt the folly and brutality of slaughtering animals for food. As long as animals are regarded as merely “the beasts that perish,” there will be all sorts of cruelty in the way they are treated by men.