A CHARGE OF CRUELTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2664, 5 April 1905, Page 18

A CHARGE OF CRUELTY.

tvt w a<^ of Icl;uei1 cl ; uei , t V to a horse came before Mr W. Crmckshank, S.M., at Owaka, on Wednesday. The accused Mas a farmer named Crid-on Soott, of Tahakopa Valley, and the cruelty consisted m tying the animal's two mnd legs with a rope, then passing the rope underneath I ts belly and through a collar, and leaving it in that condition all night A. second information charged Scott with yokin" the same horse to a sledge, and then tying up one of its fore leg=, and making ifc drag the sledge loaaed with milk cans to the factoiy, a distance of two miles. It was also allowed that defendant had CiU^lly kicked the horse while harnessed to the sledge in this fa&hion. lhe defendant, while pleading "Guilty," said la extenuation that the horse had played up i on both the occasions referred to, and he itacl j merely acted on the principles laid down in a I book (produced) entitled "The Art of Taming Horses," although he had not the proper haine=s foi tying up the anunal s legs. Constable ' "Williams said that, although rfcott was a very respectable farmer, he was noted for his illtieatrnent of hordes, and ho (the constablei could have called eight vitnes^es m support of the charge,,. Ths magistrate f^id the book

certainly laid it down that a horse could "hop for three or four miles on three legs." The defendant had pleaded guilty, although ifc did not seem a \ery bad ca-e. He would bs convicted and fined 10s, v-ith costs (7s), on, oi-e information, ?nd convicted and ordered to pay ihe court costs v?s) on the other charge.