CALLOUS CRUELTY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 40, 17 October 1913, Page 6

CALLOUS CRUELTY.

YOUNG MAN FINED £5.

! Percy Albert Rolfe was charged at the Court tint morning with -Having between September 27tli and October 2nd at Toko, cruelly ill-treated a mare by allowing it to wander on a public road while it had a broken leg. On being asked to plead Bolfe said he did not know the leg was broken. Thomas Kennedy, farmer, living two miles from Toko, gave evidence that on the evening of September 2>th a young fellow came to his house and asked for a loan of a horse. He said his horse had "broken its leg through stepping on a stone. Witness lent the horse. He could not swear if accused was the person who asked for the horse. The S.M. : Did you not ask his name ? Witness: No. . The S.M. : If he had forgotten to return the horse how would you have got it back? ' Witness: It would not have mattered very much—it was a very old horse. Constable McCowan stated that on October 2nd he received notice that there was a horse on East Road in a disabled condition. He found the mare between Toko and Douglas. One leg was broken just above the fetlock. The foot was hanging, and could easily be twisted right round. Anybody could tell that the leg was broken by looking at it. The horse was in very poor condition and in witness' opinion should not have been worked even before the accident. Witness shot the horse and had it buried. The S.M. said accused had done absolutely nothing for the animal. It was shocking cruelty. Accused had no excuse for abandoning the horse on the road. If be had asked Kennedy to allow it to graze on his land for a time it would have been something. Whether or not the horse belonged to accused, his responsibility was- the same. For the offence, accused was liable to two months' imprisonment, and he (the S.M.) sometimes thought it would prove a good lesson if he sentenced an offender to imprisonment instead of lining him. In the present case he Felt much disposed to inflict a term of imprisonment, though he did not like to send a young man to gaol. However, the line would be substantial (£5) and accused would also have to pay 12s (expense of a witness) and 7s 6d for the burying of the horse. Xext time anything similar occurred accused would see that it would pay better to give somebody half a sovereign to attend to the animal. If the present accused appeared again on a similar charge he would not feel disposed to fine him.