ANIMALS ON TRIAL

Waipa Post, Volume 36, Issue 2146, 19 April 1928, Page 7

ANIMALS ON TRIAL

e '. 1 EXCOMMUNICATED RATS. , A mediaeval custom was that of presenting animals before a court and subjecting them to human jurisdiction. The idea on which the practice rested was that animals had been proved to exhibit intelligence and power of discrimination distinct from their natural instinct; and that they should, therefore, be held responsible for their misdemeanours. Therefore, if an animal of any species committed an offence against society or an individual, it was reasonable that it should account for itself before a human court. In the Nineteenth Century for February Mr W. Branch Johnson gives the result of his researches into this curious custom. In defending the usage, one writer maintained that animals had souls; another said that they had not souls, but judgment and discretion. Among the cases cited is that of the dolphin, which was said to be able to distinguish between a drowning man who had eaten dolphin flesh and one who had not; saving the second by bringing him to land on his back, while leaving the first to perish. As a precedent it was stated that the Greeks, Romans, Celts, and Teutons surrendered an animal which had caused damage to property or the death of a person, to the aggrieved parties for punishment.

The earliest known instances of animals being formally indicted occurred in 1120, when the Bishop of Laon, in North France, threatened the caterpillars and field mice of his diocese with excommunication for having ruined the crops. The idea grew in popularity in succeeding centuries, and though it degenerated into little more than a legal formula, and finally into a legal farce, it persisted until almost our own day. In the sixteenth century one Barthelemey Chassanee, of Lyons, won fame as an advocate in an animal trial. In the diocese of Autun, in Burgundy, the rats were _summoned before the ecclesiastical courts for having done great damage to crops. Chassenee was briefed for the defence. At the first hearing he contended, as the rats did not appear, that not some, but all of the rats of the diocese should be included in the summons, since it was impossible to draw distinction. A fresh indictment was road in every parish. At the next hearing he pleaded that the sick, aged, and infirm rats must be given time to assemble, and so obtained adjournment on technical grounds. Again the court met, and this time counsel for the defence pointed out that the summons implied full protection in reaching the court. What was preventing the de<fendants from reaching the court was nothing less than fear of cats, belonging, among others, to the learned judges themselves. He therefore called on the court to bind over the cats of the diocese to good behaviour. After long consideration the judges admitted the legality of the point, but they could not sec* their way to adopting the course suggested, and they adjourned the case sine die. In all instances the most exact legal forms were followed. When a pest appeared the villagers lodged a formal ciomplaint, which was heard by the court, and counsel for the defence was appointed. The summonb was declaimed on three successive Sundays at all points frequented by the pest. Detailed descriptions of the " wanted " animals were given. Rats were described as " dirty animals in the form of rate, of greyish colour, living in holes." The defendants were supposed to appear in person, though Chassenee laid it down that insects could prove incompetence. The punishment was usually excommunication, " yet in general," says Mr Johnson, " the courts were chary of extreme measures, lest perchance the thunders fell on deaf ears. In some cascis where excommunication was actually pronounced, the animals are said to have " grown fatter and juicier than ever." These cases for the greater part originated in France. Swine, cows, and asses usually appeared before the criminal courts, and insect pests before the ecclesiastical courts. Murder was frequently alleged against the larger animals, and there are many recorded trials in which the death sentence was passed and carried out. Mr Johnson relates the proceedings in several cases. In Lalaise, in Normandy, a sow ate portion of a labourer's child, and was condemned to suffer mutilation and death on the gallows. The culprit, when brought to execution, was dressed, like a man, in waistcoat, breeches, and gloves, and wore a human mask.

Even to-day in Provence there is a survival of these customs, where cultivators practise a private qeremony known as the excommunication of the caterpillans.