MALICIOUS MISCHIEF TO ANIMALS. 551 



horse threw the defendant and he caught hold of its tongue, 

 a part of which was left in his hand, but the wound healed 

 and the animal could work as well as before, this was not 

 "maiming" the horse."* To maim means to cripple and it 

 is not essential that the act should constitute mayhem at the 

 common law.'*® Pouring acid into a mare's eye and thereby 

 blinding her, is maiming; ^^'^ but not injuring a sheep by 

 setting a dog on it.'^' Disfiguring is a lower grade of the 

 same ofifense and need not be permanent and, however slight 

 it is, if it lessens the animal's vakie and is done with malicious 

 intent, it is indictable as such.'^^ Thus, cutting off the hair 

 of the tail or mane of a horse is disfiguring it;''' though, 

 where the statute prohibited "marking, branding or dis- 

 figuring" another's animal, it was held that the latter word 

 applied only where the defendant's act was such as to prevent 

 identity being ascertained, and did not render it an offense 

 to shave the mane and crop the hair from the tail of a mare 

 in the owner's stable.'''* 



Where a nail was maliciously driven into the frog of a 

 horse's hoof, producing a temporary injury, this was held to 

 be "wounding." "The word wound appears to be used as 

 contradistinguished from a permanent injury such as maim- 

 ing." '®^ But it is not necessary to prove that any instrument 

 was used to inflict the wound, and evidence that the prisoner 

 pulled at the horse's tongue is sufficient. "Under this statute 

 the word 'wound' must be taken in the ordinary sense; for 



'" Reg. T'. Jeans, supra. 



"» Turnian v. State, 4 Tex. App. 586. 



In Texas one may be indicted for wilfully or wantonly maiming an ani- 

 mal though such animal is within his' own enclosure: Cryer v. State, 36 

 Tex. Cr. 621. 



'" Rex V. Owens, i Moody C. C. 205. 



"" Rex V. Hughes, 2 C. & P. 420. 



^''^ State V. Harris, supra. 



'" Boyd V. State, 2 Humph (Tenn.) 39. And see Oviatt z: State, 19 O. 

 St. 573; Reg. V. Smith, i Nov. Sco. Dec. (G. & O.) 29. 



'" State V. Smith, i Cheves (S. C.) IS7- 



"" Rex V. Haywood, 2 East P. C. 1076. 



