402 
JURISPRUDENCE. 
Recorder Hackett delivered the following charge to the Jury :_ 
Gentlemen, the crime with which the prisoner is charged is cruelty to an 
animal. The offence is of a grave character, and is one of serious in¬ 
terest to , all persons in this community. The law recites that any 
person having the possession of, or the charge and control of any horse, 
who shall permit such horse to be used while suffering from any serious 
disease (which is regarded by law as rendering incapable the animal, 
and unfit tor the ordinary labor of drawing loads) shall be held guilty of 
cruelty to the animal, and shall be subject to prosecution and punish¬ 
ment. The horse, gentlemen, through disease and injuries seen done 
to him, appeals to the humanity of all mankind, and the Legislature of 
this State, with the desire to mitigate their brutal treatment, and to relieve 
the poor creatures who are of such inestimable benefit to mankind in all 
matteis of life, passed the law referred to, for their preservation and 
good keeping, and that they should not be abused when unable to ex¬ 
plain that they were sick or maltreated, and that they should be treated 
with that mercy and kind consideration which normally should exist in 
the heart of every man, woman and child towards their race. 
The law to which I refer, gentlemen, recites as follows: “ That no 
person shall keep, retain, or allow, or employ to be kept or retained, at 
any place within or adjacent to the built-up portion of the City of New 
York, an\ hoise, ass 01 colt having the disease known as glanders or 
faicy , but the fact being so, the fact shall be at once reported to the 
Board of Health of said City, and under the direction of the Sanitary 
Supeimtencent, shall remove such animal in the manner designated by 
such Sanitary Superintendent. No animal having glanders or farcy, or 
any contagious disease, or shall die thereof, shall be removed, disposed 
of, or exposed in any street or public place in said City, without a written 
permit from said Board of Health, and then only in accordance with the 
terms of such permit. The evidence in this case, established by the 
unimpeached testimony of the complainant is, that he saw the prisoner 
with the hoise in question after it had been led down the street by a boy. 
Now, gentlemen, if the prisoner was seen by the first witness to have the 
care and control of this horse, you have the right to assume, if his testi¬ 
mony shall be ciedited, and, I think, it remains unshaken, that he was 
the owner, and was in the possession and control of the horse; then, 
under the law I have quoted for your instruction, the prisoner is liable 
for the wrongful position in which it was seen and found. If the 
prisonei had the horse in his possession at the time, and you are satis¬ 
fied, from the testimony of that witness, that at the instance of the Societv 
