Page 268 - erewhon

the part of the owner of the dog.
Another fertile source of disobedience to the law was fur-
nished by a decision of one of the judges that raised a great
outcry among the more fervent disciples of the old prophet.
The judge held that it was lawful to kill any animal in self-
defence, and that such conduct was so natural on the part
of a man who found himself attacked, that the attacking
creature should be held to have died a natural death. The
High Vegetarians had indeed good reason to be alarmed,
for hardly had this decision become generally known before
a number of animals, hitherto harmless, took to attacking
their owners with such ferocity, that it became necessary to
put them to a natural death. Again, it was quite common at
that time to see the carcase of a calf, lamb, or kid exposed
for sale with a label from the inspector certifying that it had
been killed in self- defence. Sometimes even the carcase of
a lamb or calf was exposed as ‘warranted still-born,’ when
it presented every appearance of having enjoyed at least a
month of life.
As for the flesh of animals that had bona fide died a natu-
ral death, the permission to eat it was nugatory, for it was
generally eaten by some other animal before man got hold
of it; or failing this it was often poisonous, so that practi-
cally people were forced to evade the law by some of the
means above spoken of, or to become vegetarians. This last
alternative was so little to the taste of the Erewhonians, that
the laws against killing animals were falling into desuetude,
and would very likely have been repealed, but for the break-
ing out of a pestilence, which was ascribed by the priests