WHAT ACTS ARE PROHIBITED. T)'^!! 



122. What Acts Are Prohibited — In an article already 

 quoted, the reasons that will justify the infliction of pain are 

 said to be: i. To save an animal's life; a fortiori to save 

 human life. 2. To cure the animal of disease, sickness, in- 

 jury or malformation; a fortiori with the view of curing^ 

 human disease, etc. 3. To assist development or proper 

 growth, fit the animal for ordinary use, or to fulfil the part for 

 which by common consent it is designed. Other doubtful 

 reasons are: i. For convenience. 2. For profit or raising 

 prices. 3. To comply with fashion or custom.'*® 



The rule has been elsewhere stated in various ways : 



"The cruelty aimed at by the statute is the unnecessary 

 abuse of the animal. Abuse may be necessary when it has 

 for its object to make the animal more fit for the service of 

 man, but this implies the service of mankind in general, and 

 not the profit or convenience of individuals; and even when 

 in this sense it is necessary, yet to be justified it must also be 

 reasonable. In other words, there must first be an object 

 which the law will allow, and then the pain inflicted in obtain- 

 ing it must not be out of proportion to its importance. There 

 remains the further qualification that where the object is 

 lawful, yet it may not be sought to be attained in a painful 

 manner where this is really useless, or where a less painful- 

 one is equally efficacious, and the fact that the painful method 

 is customary or the only one which the operator himself 

 knows or believes in will not be an excuse." ^^ 



"Undoubtedly every treatment of an animal which inflicts 

 pain, even the great pain of mutilation, and which is cruel in 

 the ordinary sense of the word, is not necessarily within the 

 act. . . . Whenever the purpose for which the act is done 

 is to make the animal more serviceabk for the use of man 

 the statute ought not to be held to apply. As was said by 

 Wightman, J., in Budge v. Parsons,^* the cruelty intended 

 by the statute is the unnecessary abuse of the animal." ^^ 



"Law Gazette, quoted in 28 Ir. L. T. 301. ='33 Sol. Jour. 485. 

 '' 3 B. & S. 382. =" Gleasby, B., in Murphy f. Manning, 2 Ex. D. 307, 313- 

 34 



