CRUELTY ALLEGED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 621, 28 August 1933, Page 7

CRUELTY ALLEGED

ljnusual prosecution heard agAinst circus trainers. DISMISSAL OF CHARGES. ■ After a nine-hours' hearing the Oxford magistrates recently dismissed summonses against two circus trainers, alleging cruelty to five animals sent hy train from Manchester to Oxford. The case wris a sequel to the deaths by suffocation of three leopards in a railway van, aird the men, Albert Jeserich and Alberh-Kruger, were. ac- j cused at the instance of the Royal | Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 8 to Animals. s Prosecuting counsel stated that the I leopai'ds were in three boxes — two in jj one, two in another, and one in a E third, and in the same railway truek 8 were three elephants. The truek had I seven windows, but these were sealed I and could not be opened. It was steel I lined and was intended for stage i scenery. The boxes were boarded up and the only . ventilation was by a perforated inspection plate and crevices. The weather was extremely hot and an attendant had to break one of the van windows because the elephants were so restless. ' The leopards were left in a goods siding at Oxford in a boiling sun for five hours, in spite of offers of transport facilities from the station ofncials. When the boxes were opened J three leopards were dead from suffo- | cation. ! Mr. E. J. Heather, a veterinary surgeon, stated that two- leopards each I had the claws of one paw embedded in the tongue. "This," he said, "is a symptom we get in cases of extreme asphyxia in animals. It is a primitive endeavour hy the animal to open up breathing." The leopards, added Mr. Heather died of suffocation, accelerated by unsuitable meat before starting on their journey. There was a possibility that the animals could have been suffocated by fumes when the. train passed through the long Woodhead tunnel, between Manchester and Sheffield, which took between seven and eight minutes to traverse. Major Taylor, a veterinary inspeetor, stated that he thought "the passage through the tunnel had nothing to do with the deaths, which were due to suffocation. Inspector Arthur Francis, of the R.S.P.C.A., stated that the atmosphere of the truek was unbearable. A floor of a leopard's box was partly covered with blood and froth. The man who travelled with the animals in the truclc was very lucky to be alive. Walter Douglas Woods, secretary of Chapman's Circus, stated that the leopards were valuable animals. Their boxes were washed out and disinfected, so they could not have been in the state of blood and froth alleged by Inspector Francis. The trainers were very fond of the animals. When they were told the animals had died they both burst into tears. They almost lived with the leopards. Albert Jeserich, ananager of the circus, said that when the attendant reported to him on the journey that he had broken the window, he (Mr. Jeserich) agreed that he had done quite rightly, but stipulated that the opposite window should not be touehed, to avoid a dangdrous draught. The truek would not have been used had he known the windows would not open. Thomas Cordingly, the attendant who travelled with the animals, stated that he broke the window before passing through the first of two tunnels. In dismissing the case the magistrates remarked that they considered the Society was justified in bringing the summonses, but there was not , sufficient evidence to warrant a con- [ viction.