STARTLING REVELATIONS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5600, 5 February 1879, Page 5

STARTLING REVELATIONS.

We learn from the San Francisco Bttlleli.i that Charles Pizzolo, an Italian who keeps a sausage shop on Dupont alley, near Pacific street, was before the Police Court lately on a charge of cruelty to animals. His offence consisted in cutting off the tails of a number of cats. The examination revealed a state of affairs in the sausage business not specially re assuring to the lovers of that mysteriously made viand. The officer of tho Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who made the arrest, informed the Court that he had heard that defendant had been extensively engaged in buying up all the felines in the neighbourhood ; that they were brought to the sausage shop by boys, who received 10 cents apiece for them, and that Pizzolo was in the habit of immediately chopping off their tails, but the fata of tho cats after being deprived of their caudal appendage was a dark mystery, to which tho only clue was believed by some to be sausages. In proof of his assertions, the officer unrolled a small paper package, and revealed to the Court tho tail cf the last of Pizzolo’s feline victims.

John Morton, a boy about 14, informed the Court that ho had sold Pizzolo a large number of cats, in fact at 10 cents apiece he had made quite a thriving livelihood by capturing all the stray tabbies found in tbo neighbourhood and carrying them to tho sausage shop. “ When I bring him cats,” continued the witness, “ he cuts their tails off with o cleaver, then ho dips tho stump into a barrel of salt, and puts tho cat on the floor, aud she runs around pretty lively.” Defendant’s Attorney : I object to any testimony as toany eats except the one whose tail is now on your Honor’s desk. We Lave that oat and that tail under consideration, and no other cats or cats’ tails ought to come into this Court until wo have found the cat to which this tail once belonged. Judge : There is something very peculiar about these tails, i think wo had better have some light as to the defendant’s motive. (To tho boy) : Do you know whether ho made sausages out of these cats ? Boy : No, 1 don’t know what ho did witl the cats after ho out off their tails. Fred. Brooks, another lad, testified to soiling Pizzolo a dozen cats. Officer Supple, formerly a butcher, was called os on expert. Ho said that bleeding would moke tho cat’s flesh white. Cross-examined: I never knew that if a cat’s tail were out off she would stay about tho place where it had been token off. Have had no experience in cutting off cats’ tails, but think it would make the meat white. Think that sausages made out of cats whose tails had been out off previously to their being killed would be on excellent imitation of pork sausages. The Judge expressed a strong desire to hea> what the defendant had to say as to hii motive in tail-cutting, and Pizzolo finally took the stand and explained that his place abounded with rats, and that ho had bought four or five cats from the boys. He cut off their tails, because tho loss of tho tails, he declared, would make them more healthy. Ho denied having made any sausages out of tho cats. Pizzolo was ordered to appear for jentenee and fined 50 dole.