Page:Henry Stephens Salt - A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays.pdf/84

Rh opponents. Finding that direct attacks on Vegetarianism are by no means unanswerable, and that the difficulties of that system are not so insuperable as has been fondly supposed, they have recourse to what may be considered a most ingenious after-thought. They are suddenly filled with profound concern for the true interests of the animals themselves ! “What would become of the animals ?” is a question to which these humane and unselfish disputants invite our serious attention. If they were not killed for food. would they not soon run wild in great numbers, and be reduced to a grievous state through famine and bodily ill-condition? Would they not lie dying in great numbers by a slow and painful death, instead of being quickly and mercifully despatched by the hands of the butcher ?

It is almost incredible that any reasoning person should ask such questions as these ; yet the fact that they are repeatedly asked must be my excuse for spending a few moments in answering them. Some persons are unaware, or affect to be unaware, that even under the present system the increase of domestic animals is not left free and unrestricted ; that the cook