ANIMALS, CRUELTY TO in law). This is an ;offense against than criminal law, and has frequently of late formed the subject of legislation, the chief act of parliament, the 12 and 13 Vict. c. 92 (passed In 1849), being that which at present regulates the law of Eng land on the subject. By this statute it is provided that if any person shall cruelly beat, ill-treat, overdrive, abuse, or torture any • horse, mare, gelding, bull, ox, cow, heifer, steer, calf, mule, ass, sheep, lamb, hog, pig, sow, gent, dog, cat, or any other domestic ani mal, lie shall forfeit a sum not exceeding £5 for every such offense, recoverable before a justice of the peace in a summary way; and if by any such conduct he shall injure the animal, or any person or property, a further sum not exceeding £10 to the owner or per son injured. The acts also inflict penalties in the case of conveying cattle by railway without water-supply, etc., causing unnecessary pain or suffering; and also in the case of bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and the like, and makes a variety of humane provisions for the regulation of the business of slaughtering horses and other cattle not intended for butcher's meat.
Formerly, in Scotland, this offense was punishable at common law—that is, according to the Scotch legal principle—common law as distinguished from statute law—and so late as the year.1826, a man was convicted there of affixing a stob, or prickle armed with iron nails, to the tail of a pouy, by which the animal was wounded in the hind-legs; and punished with two mouths' imprisonment. But the Scotch law at that time did not view such conduct so much as an act of cruelty to the animal injured, as of "malicious mischief," as it was called, and, in fact, regarded such treatment of animals as simply an offense against property. An act of parliament, however, passed in the year 1850, puts the law on this subject in Scotland on the same as it is in England. The act referred to contains provisions similar to those enacted by the 12 and 13 Vict. for Eng land; and in both acts it is declared that the word " animal" shall be taken to mean " any horse, mare, gelding, bull, ox, cow, heifer, steer, calf, mule, ass, sheep, lamb, hog, pig, sow, goat, dog, cat, or any other domestic animal.