Animal waste

“ The term is applied especially to the waste parts of an animal that has been slaughtered for food, to putrid flesh or carrion, and to waste fish, especially to the little ones that get caught in the nets with the larger and better fish, and are thrown away or used as manure. ”

“ The terrible destructiveness of man is remarkably exemplified in the chase of large mammalia and birds for single products, attended with the entire waste of enormous quantities of flesh, and of other parts of the animal which are capable of valuable uses. The wild cattle of South America are slaughtered by millions for their hides and hairs; the buffalo of North America for his skin or his tongue ”

“ Birds of prey may do harm in a particular place, because in that region mice, rabbits and other natural food are scarce, and they are driven to feed on things that are useful to man, while in places where their natural food is plentiful the same birds are altogether helpful. ”

“ XV.—Because whenever the number and hostility of predatory land animals might so tend to prevent the cultivation of vegetable food, as to render it necessary to destroy, and perhaps, to eat them, there could in that case exist no necessity for destroying the animated existences of the distinct elements of air and water; and, as in most civilized countries, there exists no land animals besides those which are purposely bred for slaughter or luxury, of course the destruction of animals, birds, and fish, in such countries must be ascribed either to unthinking wantonness or carnivorous gluttony. ”

“ Whether a bird is helpful or the reverse, in fact, depends entirely on the food it eats and often even farmers who have been familiar with birds all their lives do not know what food a bird really eats. As an example of the misunderstanding that is often found in regard to birds, when hawks are seen searching the fields and meadows, or owls flying about the orchards in the evening, the farmer always supposes that his poultry is in danger, when in reality the birds are quite as likely to be hunting for the animals which destroy grain, produce, young trees, and eggs of birds. ”

“ In Russia, formerly, bears were used to unearth them, but to-day pigs and trained dogs are relied on for locating the ripe specimens—a feat which man, with his inferior powers of smell, cannot imitate; the result being that when he tries to harvest them himself, great waste results through the uncovering of unripe specimens. ”

“ Then, too, if they bury a quantity of provisions in the ground, meaning to come back and fetch them later on, a glutton is very likely to discover them and dig them up, while the animal is also fond of visiting their huts while they are absent, and stealing everything it can carry away. ”

“ The collection of waste material is objectionable from the social viewpoint; also an accumulation of ashes and dust will irritate the eyes and respiratory tract, while piles of garbage and other filth are conducive to the breeding of flies and mosquitoes. ”

“ It is important that no more should be supplied at a time than is necessary, as most animals rapidly foul their food, and except in a few special cases, wild animals are peculiarly liable to the evil results of stale or putrid substances. ”

“ Even fish, though much more active than most other aquatic creatures, appear to undergo but little loss of substance when kept unfed during considerable periods. Reptiles, too, maintaining no great temperature, and passing their lives mostly in a state of torpor, suffer but little diminution of mass by waste. When, however, we turn to those higher orders of animals which are active and hot-blooded, we see that waste is rapid: producing, when unchecked, a notable decrease in bulk and weight, ending very shortly in death. ”

“ These insects are destroyed by birds, small mammals or other insects. The birds are killed by animals and other birds, which in turn are the food of larger animals. And so through all nature runs this law of balance; nothing increases in too great a proportion. ”

“ Garbage, consisting chiefly of trimmings of meat and vegetables and the waste from the table, if stored in open buckets soon becomes offensive and is an ideal breeding place in warm weather for flies "that drink of cesspools, dine at privy vaults, eat sputum and are likely to be the most familiar guests at the dinner table, sampling every article of food upon which they walk, leaving in their tracks disease-producing germs which have adhered to their sticky feet where they have previously dined." ”

“ As these masses of rubbish also serve at the same time as general receptacles for the superfluities of the city, groups of half-famished dogs and myriads of flies are invariably collected about them; in the midst of which are seen lying very contentedly, or rolling about for diversion, swarms of little naked children, regardless of either, which one might almost fancy were actually produced by the fertilizing qualities of these heaps of putrid matter, as the monsters of old are asserted to have been from the slime and the mud of the Nile. ”

“ Dogs and cats show visible signs of disgust at the very sight of a dead carcass of their own species; even wolves or bears are said never to eat one another except in cases of absolute necessity. When the stings of hunger have overcome the precepts of nature, in which case the same has been done by the inhabitants of the most civilised nations. Among fish and insects, indeed, there are many instances which prove that those that live by prey regard little whether what they take is of their own or any other species. ”

“ But certainly the animal deserves it, for it will go on eating and eating, long after you would think that it could not possibly swallow a morsel more. Indeed, a glutton has been known to devour, at a single meal, a great joint of meat, which would have been more than sufficient for a lion or a tiger for a whole day! It lives in North America, and also in Northern Europe and Northern Asia, and the hunters find it a terrible nuisance, for night after night it will search along a line of traps and devour all the animals caught in them. ”

“ We find, on the range, houses, boarding houses and others, swarming with flies. We find garbage cans, old, dirty stables sheltering miserable cows and horses, with the accompanying manure pile, and the dangerous open privy close to dwellings; dish water and other filth deposited in close proximity to wells, dairies that are unholy, so horrible are the conditions of their environment; sidewalks covered with the expectorations of all sorts and conditions of men, through which and over which filth walk hordes of flies in summer and early fall ”

“ It is impossible to leave any vegetable or animal matter exposed to the air without this process of decay at once setting in. Apples left in the orchard at the end of the season inevitably are reduced and disappear in a short time. Dead animals, whether large or small, in the same way succumb to the same process of nature, and it has been pointed out that, unless this provision did exist, the accumulation of such organic wastes since the settlement of this country would be so great as to make the country uninhabitable. ”

“ Animals dying by accident, of course, are exceptions, but if diseased animals, animals dying a natural death, and animals out of condition are eliminated, the quality of food supplied from any individual farm may be approved so far as the animal itself is concerned. ”

“ The advent of man in new regions with his clearing of forests, cultivation of the soil, and destruction of animal life for food or other purposes, quickly upsets the balance of nature, and some species are much reduced in numbers or disappear, while others, especially among the smaller kinds of mammals, may greatly benefit through added food supplies, and then increase until they become a pest, to be destroyed by the farmer as a measure of self-protection. ”

“ Garbage and waste.—Since much of the food of rats consists of garbage and other waste materials, it is not enough to bar the animals from markets, granaries, warehouses, and private food stores. Garbage and offal of all kinds must be so disposed of that rats can not obtain them.
In cities and towns an efficient system of garbage collection and disposal should be established by ordinances. Waste from markets, hotels, cafés and households should be collected in covered metal receptacles and frequently emptied. ”

“ But when man begins to destroy certain things, and to cultivate others, this balance is seriously disturbed. The birds that destroy weed seeds being killed, weeds flourish in such vast numbers as to drive out the cultivated crops. The birds which destroy mice, moles, gophers, etc., being killed, these animals become a nuisance and cause serious losses. If insect-destroying birds are driven out, the farmer will be at the mercy of the insects unless he employs troublesome and expensive methods of getting rid of them. ”

“ The soil is saved from erosion by the planting of forests, and by the storing of the flood waters of rivers. Waste land is made fertile by proper control of the rivers through drainage, storage and irrigation. Farm crops and also the forests are increased in value by insect control.
The insects are largely kept in check by encouraging the nesting and increase of certain birds. Birds play a large part in the conservation of the crops, by destroying insects, weeds, and small mammals. The birds themselves are sheltered and thrive only where trees are abundant. ”

“ Certain favorable conditions cause large numbers of birds to gather in a small region and they become a pest. Very careful observation has shown that in nearly every case the favorite food of the birds is something which is not valued by man, and if this food is provided, the farm grains and fruits will not be seriously molested. ”

“ On the other hand, to-day we deplore the loss of many fine animals, some of which have perished from unknown causes, or from natural changes in their environment; the remainder, alas! have been directly harried out of existence by man, either for food—for the sake of the paltry commercial value of their skins or carcases—or (still less excusably) in sheer wasteful wanton destruction, the hunters killing for killing's sake. ”

“ SLAUGHTERING ANIMALS. In killing animals for food all painful processes are avoided. Under the old system the cruelty with which the animal was treated, and its suffering from the violence of the death-struggle greatly affected the quality of the meat, lessened its nutritive powers, and rendered it less digestible, and very often exciting and injurious. Now, when an animal is to be killed, it is placed in a large lighted stable, over which is a loft, communicating with it by means of a grating. ”

“ Whether fish, or any other animal, living in water impregnated with poisonous minerals, can preserve its own life, and yet imbibe a quantity of poison sufficient to destroy the men that should eat it, seems to me very doubtful. ”

“ The fly-catching birds catch their insect [Pg 245] food on the wing among the trees and branches, and, last of all, the swallows skim high in the air and catch the few insects that rise high above the tree-tops.
Thus each family has its part of the work and the good they do is almost too great to calculate. Without this check it would be impossible for any green thing to flourish. So vast an amount of food is required to feed the great army of insects that the task would be impossible in any other way. ”

“ An uncleaned dust-bin, with its festering mass of decaying animal and vegetable refuse, particularly in hot weather and in crowded districts, is a grave evil, as any one who has given the slightest attention to the matter of hygiene will allow, and the present system of having them emptied once in a fortnight is simply absurd. ”

“ In such cases so great is the demand for food of a particular kind that the supply is soon exhausted, and the birds turn to the products of the field or orchard. The best conditions exist when there are many varieties of birds in a region, but no one variety in great numbers, for then they eat many kinds of insects and weeds, and do not exhaust all the food supply of one kind. Under such circumstances, too, the insect-eating birds would find plenty of insects without preying on useful products, and the insects would be held in check, so that the damage to crops would be slight. ”

“ Every morning we would climb to a ravine where the birds are in great quantities, and pluck the young, unfledged ones from their nests, their mothers circling round us, striking at us with beaks and wings, uttering hoarse cries, and even spitting morsels of fish at us in their fury. We then took our victims down to the camp, cooked and ate them. The old birds are inedible, and even the flesh of the young ones is, without exception, the most horrible kind of food I have ever tasted. ”

“ He secures his gluttony from famine, as far as he can, by being omnivorous. Moss and fungus, grass and herb, leaf and flower and stem and fruit, all alike find a grave in man. The lion and the flea are the victims of his fear; many a harmless snake and toad of his antipathy; the otter and the fox die for his sport; the ostrich and the ermine for his vanity. For his food, like a wolf, he slays the harmless sheep; like a hawk, he pounces on the innocent chicken; like a wily panther, surprises12 the antlered stag ”

“ It not only eats dead animal substances, but kills and devours great quantities of rats, mice, lizards, and other pests that swarm in hot countries. So tame is it, that it may even be observed, like the gull and the rook of our own country, following the ploughman as he turns up the ground, and examining the furrow for the purpose of picking up the worms, grubs, and similar creatures that are disturbed by the share. ”