STABBED RATS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 175, 21 April 1937, Page 16

STABBED RATS

Action Against Farmer in England A farm labourer of Caston, near Watton, Norfolk. England, who was stated to have stabbed rats with a fork and to have held them, while still alive, in smoke and steam, was tined £2 with £l/4/4 costs, at Watton. The action was brought by the R.S.P.C.A. lie pleaded guilty and said that he did it on the spur of the moment. A labourer at Caston Hall Earm. said that he saw defendant stab a rat and hold it up alive on a fork. After holding it in the smoke from the funnel of an engine for a minute or two, he threw it on the ground. It appeared to be dead, but crawled underneath a stack, and another workman killed it. The engine was running while the rat. was held over the chimney and the rat was blackened by the smoke. Another workman said that he saw defendant holding a rat on the end of a fork over steam, which was escaping from the valve of the engine. The rat was struggling on the fork. A constable stated that defendant said to him: “I don’t deny it.” and added that during threshing he stuck a fork into two or three rats, and that he held two of them over the engine chimney for about two minutes before they were dead. The chairman told defendant that the bench took a serious view of the mat ter and that such actions had got to stop.