626 CRUELTY AND MALICIOUS MISCHIEF. 



held that public cruelty to a cow and beating her to death in 

 or near a public street was an indictable offense at the com- 

 mon law as a public nuisance and that it was unnecessary for 

 the prosecution to prove that the animal died of the beating.* 

 The established opinion is, however, that cruelty to animals 

 as such was not indictable at the common law, but that the 

 laws on the subject are the result of modern civilization.^ 

 "The idea of protecting animals from cruelty for their own 

 sake is comparatively modern. Formerly the only protection 

 animals possessed was given them under the law against 

 malicious injuries to property; and Mr. Justice Heath, in the 

 case of Reg. v. Parker (July Sessions, 1794), says : 'In order to 

 convict a man of barbarous treatment of a beast, it should 

 appear that he had malice towards the prosecutor.' The 

 project of remedying this state of affairs secured the valuable 

 assistance of Lord Erskine's eloquence in 1809, but though a 

 bill twice received the approval of one House, it was on the 

 first occasion thrown out by the other . . . and ultimately 

 dropped." ® 



This subject will be more fully considered in treating of 

 MaHcious Mischief in § 126, infra. 



121. What Animals are Protected Before treating of the 



various forms of cruelty, a few words should be said as to the 

 definitions given by the courts to the terms "animals," "do- 

 mestic animals,"etc., as denoting the objects protected by the 

 statutes. 



Tinnets caught, kept in captivity and trained to act as de- 

 coy birds for the purpose of catching other birds, were held 

 to be "domestic animals," within the meaning of the statute 

 against cruelty.'^ On the other hand, a tame sea-gull used 



* U. S. V. Jackson, 4 Cranch C. Ct. (U. S.) 483. 



° Peo. V. Brunell, 48 How. Pr. (N. Y.), per Sutherland, J.; 12 Crim. L. 

 Mag. 378; I Bish. New Crim. Law, § 594. 

 ° Article in Law Gazette reprinted in 28 Ir. L. T. 289, 301, 310, 320. 

 For Lord Erskine's speech in full, see 2 Car. L. Repos. 364. 

 ' Colam V. Pagett, 12 Q. B. D. 66, where it is said: "These words 



