"That the Mormon pioneers were generally kind to their animals is attested to by Colonel Thomas L. Kane. A non-Mormon, Kane had befriended the persecuted Saints and pleaded their cause to the federal government during the days of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. A close friend of Brigham Young, Kane was impressed with a 'strong trait' of the Mormons being 'their kindness to their brute dependents, and particularly to their beasts of draught.' Kane recalled the Latter-day Saint pioneers had given the animals a Sabbath holiday and expressed his personal belief that they would have washed the horses with wine, if they had any, they exhibited such concern for the animals."