CHARGE DISMISSED

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1939, Page 10

CHARGE DISMISSED

TREATMENT OF CALF HAWERA COURT CASE "This is a criminal charge and heavy penalties are provided for," said Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., in the Hawera Magistrate's Court whe» dismissing a charge brought against William Francis McCullough, a Stratford cattle dealer, by Mr. John Joseph Cahill, honorary inspector for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It was alleged that on October 26 at Hawera McCullough failed to supply a calf with proper and suflicient food. Mr. L. A. Taylor represented the society. In evidence Cahill stated that from the appearance of the calf and distended state of its mother's udder when he saw them at the Hawera sale, the calf had not been fed later than 5 p.m. on the prevlous day. The calf was wearing a nose-bag, or muzzle, and Cahill considered it had been wearing it for some hours. For the defence McCullough, who was represented by Mr. R. Tyrer, stated that on the morning of October 26 he trucked the cow and calf from Stratford to Hawera. Just prior to the trucking, at about 5.45 o'clock, he placed a nose-bag on the calf. At the Hawera sale he received no bid for the cow because she was sucked out. When interrogated at Hawera by the inspector he was not then aware that he was actually an inspector, said McCullough. Otherwise he would have given him a full explanation of when the nose-bag was placed on the calf. In dismissing the case Mr. Salmon said that the charge was brought mainly on the inspector's assumption that the calf had not been fed since 5 p.m. on the previous day. McCullough's evidence, by which he was impressed, had disproved this, however. It was not possible, therefore, to make a conviction. Nevertheless, in cases where the conditions were such as the inspector had assumed, a penalty would be imposed.