CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1152, 20 October 1880, Page 2

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

1 The following is taken from the ' Solicitors' Journal ' of August 14. 1880 *.— " The High Court of Justiciary in Scotland has had to decide a curious charge of cruelty to animals, preferred : under the Prevention of Cruelty to ; animals (Scotland) Act, 1850 (13 and 14 Vict. , c. 72), section 1, which is in the i same terms as section 2 of the corres- ■ ponding English Act of 1849 (12 and 13 Vict., c. 72). The appellant and his wife were walking in Leith with two dogs, which were attacked by a larger dog. The dogs were separated once, but began to tight again. Neither the > appellant, nor his wife, nor his servant, nor a policeman were able to. separate them. The appellant having destroyed his umbrella in his effort for the protection of his own dogs, fetched a knife from his house, which was close by, and inflicted several stabs on the large dog, from the effects of which it died on the following day. The Police Magistrate fined him 30s. and it was argued in support of the conviction that the appellant had committed an offence within the statute, since he had been guilty of wanton cruelty, • and had inflicted needless pain by causing the dog to die a lingering and painful death. The Court, however, allowed the appeal. The Lord Justice Clerk, after observing that ' it is not comfortable to try to separate dogs which are fighting,' held that there had been no cruelty within the Act, which was only aimed against persons who make an animal suffer without cause. The Court, however, expressely abstained from expressing an opinion as to whether the appellant was liable to an action at the suit .of the owner of the deceased dog."