105 



it for dead, without taking means to determine whether it was 

 dead or alive. The cat returned to consciousness with its jaw 

 broken, and crawled away. The doctor was fined $25, ap- 

 pealed the case to the County Court of Broome County before 

 Judge Parsons, and there the conviction was sustained Dec. 27, 

 1912. This seems to have been a conviction for cruelty to ani- 

 mals. Had the cat been shot dead the plaintiff would have had 

 no case. Appolinary Kane of Binghamton was sentenced by 

 Judge Hotchkiss in July, 1915, to thirty days in jail for shooting 

 a cat which he claimed had been killing his chickens. The shot 

 mutilated the cat, and Mr. Kane then went into the house and 

 left the cat to die in agony. It behooves those who shoot cats 

 to beware of bungling and unnecessary cruelty, and to finish the 

 task if they begin it. But there seems to be no law to prevent 

 the humane killing of stray cats anywhere, unless one breaks 

 laws against shooting within city limits, within a certain dis- 

 tance of a dwelling, on the public highway or on public lands; 

 provided also that the trespass laws are not broken in the act. 

 Those who intend to poison or trap cats in Massachusetts should 

 observe the provisions of chapter 626 of the Acts of 1913, which 

 reads as follows : — 



Section 1. Whoever shall place or distribute poison in any form what- 

 soever, for the purpose of killing any animal, or shall construct, erect, set, 

 repair or tend any wire snare for the purpose of catching or kiUing any animal, 

 shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding one hundred dollars: provided, 

 that nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit any person from 

 placing in or near his house, barns or fields, poison intended to destroy rats, 

 woodchucks or other pests of a like nature or insects of any kind. 



Section 2. Any person who shall set, place, maintain or tend a steel 

 trap with a spread of more than six inches or a steel trap with teeth jaws, or a 

 "stop-thief" or choke trap with an opening of more than six inches shall be 

 punished by a fine of not exceeding one himdred dollars. 



Section 3. Any person who shall set, maintain, or tend a steel trap on 

 enclosed land of another without the consent in writing of the owner thereof, 

 and any person who shall fail to visit at least once in twenty-four hours, a 

 trap set or maintained by him shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding 

 twenty dollars. 



Section 70, chapter 212, Revised Laws (1902), provides a 

 penalty for cruelly abandoning any domestic animal. Only a 

 few convictions for deserting cats have been secured under this 

 law for the reason that it often is hard to prove which has been 

 abandoned, cat or owner. 



