ANIMALS IN THE DOCK.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2516, 20 December 1927, Page 2

ANIMALS IN THE DOCK.

UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES. A clog, condemned to death by a Midlands Bench of magistrates on the ground of its being dangerous, was reprieved at the last moment as a result of a petition presented by local residents. The circumstances, though unusual, were not entirely novel, for legal records contain many accounts of trials in which animals have been the. central figures.' In 1920 a Surbiton terrier condemned by the Kingston magistrates was the subject of an appeal signed by 18,000 persons. Before that records show _ that pigs, bulls, and even rats have stood their trial in courts of law. A bull, at Moisy, in France, was prosecuted for having gored a man to death, and was condemned to be strangled for the offence. In another case a sow was the delinquent, the charge being one of injuring a child, for which the animal paid the extreme penalty. The strange spectacle of a cock in the dock was seen at Basle, Switzerland. The bird was charged with disturbing the peace and was actually represented by counsel, whose efforts to save it were unavailing.