530 ClUfELTY AND MALICIOUS MISCHIEF. 



"Any operation upon an animal which causes pain is 'cruel 

 ill-treatment, abuse or torture of the animal . . unless 

 the act be justified by showing that it was done for some 

 lawful purpose legalized by custom, for the benefit of the 

 animal itself, or for making it more serviceable for the law- 

 ful use of man." ^* 



The intention to inflict the injury is not essential : there- 

 fore in a prosecution for cruelly beating and killing an ani- 

 mal, evidence that the defendant voluntarily struck it in a 

 cruel manner and killed it, was held sufficient for conviction, 

 though he did not intend to kill it.^^ And in a Massa- 

 chusetts case, it is said : "The motive of intending to inflict 

 injury or suffering is not, by the terms of the statute, made 

 an essentia] element of the ofifense. And although the most 

 common case to which the statute would apply is un- 

 doubtedly that in which an animal is cruelly beaten or tor- 

 tured for the gratification of a malignant or vindictive 

 temper, yet other cases may be suggested where no such ex- 

 press purpose could be shown to exist, which would be within 

 the intent as well as the letter of the law. Thus, cruel beat- 

 ing or torture for the purpose of training or correcting an 

 intractable animal ; pain inflicted in wanton or reckless disre- 

 gard of the suffering it occasioned and so excessive in degree 

 as to be cruel ; torture inflicted by mere inattention and crim- 

 inal indifTerence to the agony resulting from it, as in the case 

 of an animal confined and left to perish from starvation, we 

 can have no doubt would be punishable under the statute, 

 even if it did not appear that the pain itself was the direct and 

 principal' object. Severe pain inflicted upon an animal for 

 the mere purpose of causing pain or indulging vindictive 

 passion is cruel. And so it is if inflicted without any justi- 

 fiable cause and with reasonable cause to know that it is pro- 

 duced by the wanton or reckless conduct of the person who 

 ■ occasions it." "^ 



™ 63 L.T. 38. "' State i;. Hackfath, 20 Mo. App. 614. See Peo. v. Ross, infra. 

 '"- Com. V. Lufkin, 7 Allen (Mass.) S79, per Hoar, J. And see Com. v. 



