FATE OF THIRTEEN CATS.

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 16

FATE OF THIRTEEN CATS.

The action in which Mrs Power, a wealthy widow, sued Mr Musgrave, a “canine specialist” and “keeper of a “cats’ homo” at Wandsworth, for damages because of the death of thirteen cats through alleged neglect, was concluded before Mr Justice Jelf in the King’s Bench Division in December.

Mrs Musgrave, the defendant’s wife, described liow her husband treated tlie eats,

When the cats were ill, she said, they were fed upon beef, chopped very fine, and milk, and when there was difficulty in swallowing, the cats were fed with beef tea. Everything was done for the animals when they were ill, regardless of expense. When they were very ill, she added, her husband went down in the middle of the night to try to coax the cats to take food.

As to the suggestion that Mrs Musgrave asked Mrs Power to come to live with her to help her in preventing Mr Musgrave from horsewhipping his dogs, Mrs Musgrave said indignantly, “I should not require another woman to help me manage my husband.” The cats, it appeared, were kept in two cells, and one witness, a lecturer on natural history, described the place over the cells as the “heaven.” Mr Justice Jelf: What is tho "heaven” ?

Witness said that the defendant’s house had been a police station, and there was a loft above the. cells which lie recommended defendant to use for some of the animals.

Mr Justice Jelf: It is as opposed to the cells that it was called “heaven?”

Witness: The other place is called down below.”

The jury, without leaving tlie box, found a verdict for the defendant, and judgment was given for him.