CAT KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 191, 15 August 1939, Page 12

CAT KILLED.

CRUELTY CHARGE FOLLOWS.

INFORMATION DISMISSED

(By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) GISBORXE, this day. A case of "The Cat and the Canary" was presented to justices in the Police Court yesterday, when Richard Edwards, a tailor, wae prosecuted by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on a charge of cruelly ill-treating a cat by beating it with a stick or iron bar. Evidence for the prosecution showed that defendant had a canary in a cage outside his shop and the cat came over the roof, inserting a paw between the bare. The defendant, emerging from his shop with a stick or bar of iron, struck several timee at tho cat which fell on the path, crying piteously. The cat was carried inside the shop and a dull thud was hoard, the cat subsequently being found dead. A witness for defendant, who conducted hi<* own case, said Edwards hit the cat with an iron bar. Edwards, who claimed to be a bird fancier, admitted striking the cat but said he did not intend killing it. He claimed he had lost five birds previously through cats. The Bench held that a charge of cruelty had not been proved and dismissed the case.