A horse drawing a load of freight was going down the grade on
Seneca Street (Buffalo). The weight of the load sent it forward
on the animal’s heels. The driver pulled up the horse to steady
him. The load slid forward still faster--the horse slipt and
fell.
A little crowd gathered. The horse was unhitched as it lay
panting on its side with its fore-legs skinned from the knee
down from contact with the ice. The animal struggled to rise,
but could not gain a foothold. Then some one placed a folded
blanket under the horse’s fore-feet, and he got up and stood
shivering from the strain.
Just a common street scene.
But it has a moral in the opinion of the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is, “don’t overload.”
“I do wish that teamsters and owners of work-horses could be
brought to understand that it does not pay to overload their
wagons,” said Miss Jessie C. Hall, office secretary of the
society.
“Just now the overloading of wagons is causing no end of trouble
and complaints are pouring in every day. If drivers would take
smaller loads it would pay in the end. Only this morning an
agent of the society was called to Broadway and Gibson Street
where a horse had fallen down. It was so badly hurt that it had
to be destroyed.”
(2283)