DOGS FREE TO KILL CATS.

Western Star, 26 July 1935, Page 4

DOGS FREE TO KILL CATS.

<S> Mr S. J. Bliss, the magistrate at Grafton’ New South Wales, has held that an owner of a dog which had killed a cat was not liable, as the dog was following its natural iustincts. A woman sued a neighbour, the owner of a greyhound dog which, it was alleged, trespassed on plaintiff’s property and killed a purebred Persian cat, valued at £ls. Plaintiff said that the same dog had killed a eat the week he fore.

Counsel for defendant- submitted that the Dog and Goat Act did not apply to injury to a cat. as the. definition of animals did not include a. cat. Liability did not attach to his client at common Law, as to mate him respon- , sibie he must have knowledge of some vicious propensity beyond the common instincts of the dog. The hostility of cats and dogs was proverbial, and if a dog fought a cat he "'as merely obeying a natural impulse. There was no evidence that this dog had a vicious 01 mischievous propensity, nor proof that the defendant knew it. Plaintiff’s counsel replied that the dog had previously killed a eat, and there was evidence that the defendant knew its mischievous propensity. The magistrate, after adjourning to consider authorities, said he sympathised with the plaintiff, but the action must fail. Dogs had been given a favoured position. The owner of a dog was not responsible for mischief done in following its common instincts. Plaintiff was non-suited.

Then there was the golfer who decided to irove heaven and earth to win the clvnnpionshi]) and had to replace only the earth. F.vcitement is apt- to reduce one’s weight, ’ says a doctor. —One does lose a pound or two when hig fancy gets H'vten hy a slwrt