Page:Halsbury Laws of England v1 1907.pdf/631

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Part VII.— Wild Birds.

409

upon a conviction under either the Act of 1880 or the Act may order any trap, net, snare, or decoy bird used for taking any wild bird to be forfeited (e). further,

of 1896,

Part VIII.

— Cruelty

Sect.

1.

Sect.

2.

Prosecution of Offenders.

to Animals.

General Offences.

878. It is a statutory offence (/) cruelly to beat, ill-treat, over- 111. treating drive (^7), abuse, or torture any animal, or to cause or procure any domestic of these acts to be done (/i). "Animal" here means any horse, mare, geldinp;, bull, ox, cow, heifer, steer, calf, mule, ass, sheep, lamb, hog, pig, sow, goat, dog, cat, or any other domestic animal of any kind or species whatever, and whether a quadruped or not (i). A person may be charged and convicted on one summons with having cruelly ill-treated a number of animals, for instance five cows, on a certain date. It is not necessary to have a separate summons in respect of each animal (k). It has been held that the above enactment does not apply to wild animals reclaimed or in captivity, and that, therefore, a conviction under it cannot be maintained for cruelty to parrots {I), a tame seagull {m), caged lions (n), or wild rabbits caught in nets and kept in boxes and fed for five or six days before being coursed (0) though a fighting cock (p), and linnets kept in captivity and trained to act as decoys (g), have been decided to be domestic animals for this purpose, and it has been suggested that trained elephants and leopards and otters kept and trained to hunt and fish are also domestic (r).

(e) Act of 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 56), s. 4. Cruelty to (/) The various Acts applicable to this subject are as follows Animals Act, 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. 92) Cruelty to Animals Act, 1854(17 & 18 Vict. c. 60) Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 77) (vivisection) Drugging of Animals Act, 1876 (39 Vict. c. 13) Injured Animals Act, 1907 Wild Animals in Captivity Protection Act, 1900 (63 & 64 (7 Edw. 7, c. 5)

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Vict.

c. 33).

The word " overdrive " also signifies " override " see s. 29 of the Act of 1849 (the principal Act). Setting cocks to fight, if they are (/<) Act of 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. 92), s. 2. hurt, is an offence {Budge v. Parsons (1863), 3 B. & S. 382) so is cutting cocks' combs {Murphy v. Manning (1877), 2 Ex. D. 307) but leaving an injured horse to die in agony is not an offence [Everitt v. Davies (1878), 38 L. T. 360 Foiuell V. Knight (1878), 38 L. T. 607, a case of an injured dog). (/) Ibid., s. 29, as extended by s. 3 of the Act of 1854. {k) R. V. Cable, [1906] 1 K. B. 719. See also Rodgtrs v. Richards, [1892] 1 Q. B. 555. (/) Sivan V. Saunders (1881), 44 L. T. 424. (m) Yates v. Higgins, [1896] 1 Q. B. 166. (w) Harper v. Marcks, [1894] 2 Q. B. 319. (o) Aplin V. Forritt, [1893] 2 Q. B. 57. Alien v. Small, [1901] L. R. 2 Ir. (p) Budge v. Parsons (1863), 3 B. & S. 382 {g)











705. {q) (r)

Colam v. Pagett (1884), 12 Q. B. D. 66. Per Weight, J., in Harper v. Marcks, supra, at

p. 323.