In dealing with animals it is necessary to consider carefully
what signs may be depended upon as proofs of their suffering.
Certainly their struggles and cries are not always true
indications. All wild animals struggle under restraint. With
many, cries indicate fear rather than pain. A hare when shot
rarely cries; when closely pursued by dogs it often does.
Animals when trapped rarely cry until some one approaches the
trap. Frogs will cry out loudly on the appearance of anything
at all resembling a snake; when injured with stones or cut by
the scythe in mowing they rarely do so. Every gamekeeper knows
that it is a common thing for a rat or rabbit, when caught
by the leg in one of the ordinary steel-traps, to gnaw off
its limb and so escape, while other animals when kept short
of food will readily eat their own tails. Another proof that
animals are less sensitive to pain than man is their comparative
freedom from shock after severe injuries. When a man meets with
a severe injury of any kind, a train of symptoms follow which
are collectively known by the name of shock. A striking pallor
takes the place of the natural color, the skin becomes covered
with a clammy moisture, the eye loses its natural luster, and
the extremities become deadly cold, and while the ear may detect
the fluttering action of the heart, the pulse at the wrist is
often quite imperceptible. All these symptoms point to a great
disturbance of the nervous system, whereas the lower animals
often sustain the severest injuries without exhibiting any of
the symptoms of shock.--W. COLLIER, _Nineteenth
Century_.
(2289)