Veterinary Jurisprudence. 
CAUTION TO BUTCHERS, DROVERS, ETC. 
At tlie petty sessions at the Town Hall, Brentford, before Mr. F. H. 
N. Glossop and a full bench of magistrates, Henry Hetherington, a 
butcher, William Widdick, a labourer, and Richard Weight, a lad in 
Hetherington’s employ, were charged by the Royal Society for the Pre¬ 
vention of Cruelty to Animals, the former with having caused and pro¬ 
cured a bull to be cruelly illtreated and tortured, and the latter two 
with having illtreated and tortured the same animal at Ealing, on the 
l Oth ult. 
Mr. William Love, instructed by the secretary of the Royal Society, 
attended to conduct the prosecution. 
The evidence, which was lengthy, was fully explained in Mr. Love’s 
opening, from which it appeared that the bull originally belonged to 
Baron Rothschild, and was kept at the baron’s estate at Gunnersbury, 
being a very docile animal. A serious accident happening to one of its 
hind legs, and all the care bestowed on the case being of no avail, th($ 
baron humanely ordered that the animal should be sold to be slaugh¬ 
tered without delay. The defendant Hetherington became the pur¬ 
chaser, stipulating to send a conveyance for it to take it to Kingston 
market on the following day, but instead of doing so resolved, if the 
animal could be made to do so, that it should travel the distance on 
foot, notwithstanding that it was unable to put its injured limb to the 
ground. Widdick, who was employed to drive the bull, procured a long 
pole with an iron hook at the end of it, and fastened this to a ring which 
was passed through the animal’s nostril, and so, by dint of tugging and 
wrenching at its nostril, assisted by the defendant Weight, who beat it 
in a most brutal manner about the injured leg, the poor animal was got 
as far as Kew Bridge, where it came to a standstill. At that time some 
gentlemen coming up and seeing the state the animal was in, interfered, 
and caused it to be slaughtered and put out of its agony. 
The witnesses described the animal’s sufferings to have been intense, 
and that it took nearly five hours to get it to a shed 150 yards off. 
Mr. Love urged that the defendant Witherington’s motive could only 
have been to save himself the expense of a conveyance, thereby defeat¬ 
ing the humane intentions of the baron. He therefore felt bound to 
press for a severe punishment. 
The Chairman said the bench could come to no other conclusion than 
that cruelty of the grossest kind had been inflicted upon the poor ani¬ 
mal. He should fine the defendant Witherington £2 and costs, or a 
month’s imprisonment, Widdick, £1 and costs, or fourteen days’ im¬ 
prisonment, and Weight would be cautioned and discharged. The 
Chairman also said the baron’s herdsman who permitted the bull to be 
removed in such a state, disregarding thereby his master’s orders, 
deserved censure. 
The Lord Chief Baron Pollock occupied a seat on the bench, aud the 
case created considerable interest. 
ARMY APPOINTMENTS. 
War Office, Pall Mall, April 22,1862. 
Veterinary Department. —G. Blake, Gent., to be 
Acting Veterinary Surgeon, 
OBITUARY. 
Died suddenly, at New York, U.S., on March 1 6th, Robert 
Pooley, M.R.C.Y.S., late of Heacham, Norfolk. 
