184 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
the defendant had not only not conformed to the rules and regulations 
laid down for his guidance by the act of parliament, but that he had 
been guilty of acts of reckless cruelty to a number of poor unfortunate 
animals brought to his place to be slaughtered. That his (Mr. 
Wakeling’s) instructions were to press for severe punishment, in order 
to show the defendant, and others engaged in the same trade that they 
could not set the law at defiance, and commit these offences with 
impunity. 
Several officers of the society and other witnesses were then called, 
whose evidence went to show, that information having reached the 
society of the cruelty and neglect shown by the defendant towards old 
worn-out horses which were brought to his place to be slaughtered, 
they were sent to Plumstead on the 9th inst., and they saw in a small 
field belonging to the defendant, and adjoining his premises, thirteen 
horses. The field was covered with frost and snow, and there was not 
a particle of food or water that the animals could get. The whole of 
the horses were in the worst possible condition, and gradually starving 
to death. One was found eating ravenously masses of straw and rushes, 
which were covered with mud in a ditch. Another was seen lying in 
the field in a frightful state of disease, aggravated by the frost, and 
its hoof nearly rotted off. The whole of the horses were more or less 
diseased, and presented a sickening sight, and eleven of them had not 
been disfigured according to the terms of the act of parliament. The 
defendant was called to the spot by the officers, and he admitted that 
the animals had been in the. field three or four days, and that he neither 
fed nor watered them, because he considered they could get sufficient in 
the field ; and if he had not complied with the act of parliament he must 
stand the consequences. 
Several witnesses were called for the defence, and it was endeavoured 
to be shown that the field was not in the state represented by the 
officers. The state of the horses was admitted. 
Mr. Davis made a lengthy address on behalf of the defendant, con¬ 
tending that no case had been made out upon which the magistrate 
could convict. He stigmatised the prosecution as being a vindictive 
and vexatious one; observing that, because the defendant’s premises 
were an eyesore to the neighbourhood and a nuisance to the govern¬ 
ment, whose premises abutted the defendant’s, this step had been 
taken with a view to the ultimate cancelling of his license, which w ould 
entail ruin upon him. 
Mr. Maude said the case had been very clearly made out under the 
section of the act of parliament upon which the summonses were taken 
out. The defendant had also shown a degree of cruelty and neglect to 
these poor wretched creatures in their, what he might term, dying 
moments, as must astonish every one who had heard it. The law that 
had been passed by the legislature for the supervision of places kept by 
persons of the defendant’s calling was a very wholesome one, and the 
society did well in directing its attention to these places. The prose¬ 
cution was a very proper one, and for the first offence he should fine 
the defendant £4 and the costs. With regard to the second he did not 
look upon that in so serious a light. It was proper, however, that this 
part of the act should be carried out, for it effectually prevented these 
wretched animals being sold to work again after they had been received 
at the premises of the slaughterers to be killed. He should levy 
a fine of £1 and the costs in that case, and he trusted that it would have 
the effect of deterring the defendant from the commission of like 
offences in future. 
