WHAT ACTS ARE PROHIBITED. 533 



cruelly suffered.*^ But where parrots were sent by rail in a 

 box without water for ten hours, there was held to be no evi- 

 dence of cruelty.** Grove, J., said: "Cruelty has been de- 

 fined as the unnecessary abuse of an animal. I should pre- 

 fer to define the word as unnecessary ill usage by which the 

 animal substantially suffers. . . . Cruelty does not mean 

 any inconvenience or discomfort incidental to travelling 

 from one place to another which may happen to the animal. 

 To keep a bird in September without water for one night is, 

 Avithout frittering away the effect of the statute, not such 

 cruelty as to be punishable." 



Administering poison to animals comes within the statutory 

 meaning of "cruelty." *^ 



The omission to kill an animal which has been lawfully 

 wounded, is in great pain and incurably ill, is not necessarily 

 an offense. This was held in a case where the defendant 

 thought he had killed a dog and dragged it into a road 

 where he found it to be still alive and left it. It was held that 

 the statute did not apply to such passive cruelty but only to 

 intentional cruelty.** So, the owner of a horse incurably 

 diseased and in pain, who omits to have it slaughtered is not 

 guilty : otherwise, where he keeps it in such a manner that it 

 suffers intense pain in moving around a field to graze. He 

 is then as guilty as if he had actually tortured it with his own 

 hand.*^ So, chasing a pig, hacking it with a carpenter's axe 



" Com. V. Curry, 150 Mass. 509. See, also as to failure to provide with 

 shelter, Ferrias v. Peo., 71 III. App. 559. 



" Swan V. Saunders, 44 L. T. N. S. 424. 



The decision was based partly, as is said supra, on the ground that the 

 parrots in question were not "domestic animals." 



''' Peo. V. Davy, 32 N. Y. Suppt. 106. 



The word "land" in an act against placing poisoned flesh or meat "in 

 or upon any land" is not limited to merely open land but applies to en- 

 closed gardens, buildings and dwelling-houses: Rogers v. Hull, 60 J. P. 

 584. 



'" Powell V. Knight, 38 L. T. N. S. 607. 



" Everitt v. Davies, 38 L. T. N. S. 360. 



