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THE GAME BREEDER 



have in the case of dogs found worrying 



sheep. 



It will be noted that in both the above 

 cases the owner of the property or his 

 agent were sustained. A man killing 

 another's cat or dog on his own property 

 may have some legal rights that he might 

 not claim in killing it on the owner's 

 property. Malicious killing probably 

 would be unlawful also, as it might come 

 under the head of malicious mischief, and 

 cruelty must be avoided. Dr. Henry Hall 

 of Binghamton, N. Y., was convicted 

 June 8, 1912, before Judge Albert Hotch- 

 kiss of the City Court of Binghamton, 

 apparently not for killing a cat, but for 

 failing to kill it and leaving it to suffer. 

 The doctor shot, with a rifle, a cat that 

 was attempting to kill a bird at his drink- 

 ing fountain, and left it for dead, without 

 taking means to determine whether it was 

 dead or alive. The cat returned to con- 

 sciousness with its jaw broken, and 

 crawled away. The doctor was fined $25, 

 appealed the case to the County Court of 

 Broome County before Judge Parsons, 

 and there the conviction was sustained 

 December 27, 1912. This seems to have 

 been a conviction for cruelty to animals. 

 Had the cat been shot dead the plaintiff 

 would have had no case. Appolinary 

 Kane of Binghamton was sentenced by 

 Judge Hotchkiss in July, 1915, to thirty 

 days in jail for shooting a cat which he 

 claimed had been killing his chickens. 

 The shot mutilated the cat, and Mr. Kane 

 then went into the house and left the cat 

 to die in agony. It behooves those who 

 shoot cats to beware of bungling and 

 unnecessary cruelty, and to finish the task 

 if they begin it. But there seems to be 

 no law to prevent the humane killing of 

 stray cats anywhere, unless one breaks 

 laws against shooting within city limits, 

 within a certain distance of a dweling, 

 on the public highway or on public lands ; 

 provided also that the trespass laws are 

 not broken in the act. Those who intend 

 to poison or trap cats in Massachusetts 

 should observe the provisions of chapter 

 626 of the Acts of 1913, which reads as 

 follows : 



Section 1. Whoever shall place or dis- 

 tribute poison in any form whatsoever, 

 for the purpose of killing any animal, or 



shall construct, erect, set, repair or tend 

 any wire snare for the purpose of catch- 

 ing or killing any animal, shall be pun- 

 ished by a fine not exceeding one hundred 

 dollars : provided, that nothing in this 

 section shall be construed to prohibit any 

 person from placing in or near his house, 

 barns or fields, poison intended to destroy 

 rats, woodchucks or other pests of a like 

 nature or insects of any kind. 



Section 2. Any person who shall set, 

 place, maintain or tend a steel trap with 

 a spread of more than six inches or a 

 steel trap with teeth jaws, or a ""stop- 

 thief" or choke trap with an opening of 

 more than six inches shall be punished by 

 a fine of not exceeding one hundred dol- 

 lars. 



Section 3. Any person who shall set, 

 maintain, or tend a steel trap on enclosed 

 land of another without the consent in 

 writing of the owner thereof, and any 

 person who shall fail to visit at least once 

 in twenty-four hours, a trap set or main- 

 tained by him shall be punished by a fine 

 not exceeding twenty dollars. 



Section 70, chapter 212, Revised Laws 

 (1902), provides a penalty for cruelly 

 abandoning any domestic animal. Only 

 a few convictions for desertine cats have 

 been secured under this law for the rea- 

 son that it often is hard to prove which 

 has been abandoned, cat or owner. 



Send in the News. 



We appreciate the fact that game 

 breeders are very busy during the breed- 

 ing season but we are sure they find time 

 to read the interesting notes sent to The 

 Game Breeder by our readers. 



It only takes a few minutes to write 

 a few lines about the game and the ver- 

 min, about the successes, accidents or 

 even failures. All are interesting. All 

 tend to help the "more game" movement 

 on its way and to make new converts. 



We hope soon to enlarge the publica- 

 tion and to print many more practical 

 short stories of actual occurrences. 



An Angler's Tale. 



Priscilla asked John Alden why 

 didn't speak for himself. 



"I don't talk when I fish," he answered 



he 





