124 ON THE RIGHTS OF BEASTS, 



row too frequently perpetrated, thefe fpecula- 

 tions had never feen the light. 



In the trial of William Parker (July fefhons, 

 1794) for tearing out the tongue of a mare, 

 Mr. Juftice Heath faid, " In order to convict, a 

 man for barbarous treatment of a beaft, it was 

 neceffary it fhould appear, that he had malice 

 towards the profecutor." Thus we fee, had the 

 mare been the property of this fiend, he had 

 efcaped punifhment. In November, 1793, two 

 Manchefter butchers were convifted in the pe- 

 nalty of twenty (hillings each, for cutting off 

 the feet of living iheep, and driving them 

 through the ftreets. Had the fheep been their 

 own property, they might, with impunity, 

 either have diffecled them alive, or burned them 

 alive ; particularly, if in imitation of certain 

 examples, they could have made any allegation 

 of profit. A butcher, in * * * * flreet, has been 

 more than once feen to hang a poor calf up 

 alive, with the gambrill ftuck through its fi- 

 news, and the rope thrufl through its noftrils, 

 until the bleating of the tortured animal has 

 difturbed the neighbourhood. But who fhall 

 prevent this man, feeing he does but torture his 

 own property, for his own amufement and fa- 

 tisfaclion? Whilfl I am writing this, I have re- 

 ceived information of a poor horfe's tongue 

 having been cut out, and of feveral cattle hav- 

 ing 



