1910.] Cruelty in the Destruction of Animals. 931 



were more generally known and more strictly enforced, a 

 considerable amount of suffering might be prevented. 



Ground Game Act, 1880. — The effect of the provisions of 

 the Ground Game Act, 1880, which give occupiers a right 

 to kill hares and rabbits on their lands, is to limit the right 

 to the occupier and persons authorised by him in writing. 



It is therefore possible for farmers to assist in the pre- 

 vention of cruelty by exercising discretion in authorising 

 persons to trap hares and rabbits, and by seeing that such 

 persons properly attend to the traps which they set, so that 

 animals are not allowed to remain in the traps for any long 

 period. The Board believe that much good could be done in 

 this way. 



Section 6 of the Act provides that no person having a 

 right of killing ground game under the Act or otherwise 

 shall use any firearms for the purpose of killing ground 

 game between the expiration of the first hour after sunset 

 and the commencement of the last hour before sunrise; and 

 that no such person shall, for the purpose of killing ground 

 game, employ spring traps except in rabbit-holes, or employ 

 poison ; and any person acting in contravention of this 

 section is, on summary conviction, liable to a penalty not 

 exceeding two pounds. 



It will be seen that the Act expressly prohibits the setting 

 of spring traps in the open for the purpose of taking hares 

 and rabbits. If a spring trap is employed at all it must be 

 set actually in the rabbit-hole, and it has been held in a 

 Scotch case that " rabbit-hole " does not include the run at 

 the mouth of the hole, but is confined to "that part of the 

 burrow which is inside the ground and covered by the roof " 

 (Brown v. Thompson, 1882, 9 Rettie Court of Session Cases, 



1183). 



The spring trap, however, is in any case an exceedingly 

 unsatisfactory and undesirable means of catching ground 

 game, and, in the Board's opinion, should not be used. 



A humane rabbit trap can be made by a simple adaptation 

 of the ordinary "wire" trap or snare. In the ordinary trap 

 of this type strangulation takes place, but it seldom occurs 

 immediately, and the animal may continue to struggle for a 

 considerable period. If a very small ring be tied to the wire 



