Many interesting articles and letters have appeared in the "Era" during the last few weeks ing with the old charge that the training and employment of performing animals involve cruelty, and recently an interview appeared with Captain Woodward, the well-known trainer of seals and sea-lions, whose animals did useful work in tracking submarines during the war.
"T need not attempt to defend the entire profession, though 1 can understand that if one animal can be trained by humane methods it is only reasonable to suppose another could," says Captain Woodward.
"I had better, however, confine myself to what I absolutely know to be facts in my own case. The sea lion actually grows in happiness when he becomes domesticated, and there is no difficulty in teaching bim to perform.
could convince any fair-minded person that our animals Icve their work, from the very fact that during the war, in their work of tracking submarines, we did not lose one animal by desertion, either in the Lake of Bala or in fe open sea.
"Tf these animals felt any re sentment towards us, why did they not take advantage of the opportunity and swim away? No, they were intelligent enough 0 know when they were happy."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.