The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-28 00:00:00

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

THE LATE TROTTING MATCH OF TWENTY MILES
AN HOUR OVER TWENTY HURDLES FIVE FEET
lllGll.—Yesterday, Mr. Thomas, Secretary to the So-
ciety of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, applied
to Mr. Hardwicke, at Marylebone, for a warrant against
Burke, of trotting-mare celebrity, who, for a bet of 501.,
undertook to ride a horse twenty miles over twenty hur-
dles five feet high within the hour, and which wager
went off on the Gth of August in Jackson's grounds,
when the poor animal, in attempting the eighteenth
wile, was so distressed that it could not reach 100 yards
beyond the winning-post, and, on reaching the stable, it
actually fell down from weakness. Death soon put
an end its miseries.

Mr. Thomas stated that a summons was granted by
Mr. Rawlinson, and which was to have been heard last
Thursday. The defendant did not appear, and in con-
sequence he applied for a warrant. He then, while
alluding to the difficulty he should have in finding the
defendant, as he had no settled place of abode, di-
rected the attention of the magistrate to a clause in
the late Police Act, by which a charge may be
heard in the absence of a defendant, provided appli-
cation was made to his last place of residence. Mr.
Ravdinson observed that, before he acted on his own
opinion, he should wish that he (the secretary) should
get the opinion of counsel as to the power of a Magis-
trate in such a case, as it appeared to him that the
object in view (the subject of the application) was
something similar to a horserace. He (the secretary)
had since applied to Mr. Adolphus, the counsel, who
had given his opinion on the case.
He gave the brief to the Magistrate which contained
the opinion.
Mr. HARDWICKE, having read the document, said
there was a difficulty in determining where to draw the
line. Where one saw a person with a goad strike a
sheep or a horse, and who bad no other object in view
than the gratification of a brutal feeling, that was un-
mixed cruelty and wanton in the extreme ; but where a
person had in view the accomplishment of a particular
object, as in a horserace or steeple chase, the case was
far different.
Mr. Thomas—But in these instances the horse is
trained. Here the horse was taken out of an omnibus
without any training, to undergo excessive torture. The
horse was urged on when it was incapable of performing
the feat. The first ten miles it did in twenty-six mi-
' nutes and a half.

Mr. HARDWICKE—The act was very cruel, cer-
tainly, but it comes as near as possible to that class of
matches called horseracing. The thing to be consi-
dered is whether the act can be looked upon as palpably
wanton ; that is, wanton without any object.
Mr. Thomas referred to a case where some gentle-
men drove a coach from Cambridge to London within
a certain time, for which act they were fined 40s.
Mr. HARDWICKE—BUt when you refer to matches
where thousands of pounds are at stake, you will never
find penalties of 40s. to check the vice of these persons.
There is not the least doubt of the cruelty in the pre-
sent case ; but when you come to the idea of wanton-
ness, what. signification will you give to it ?
Mr. Thomas then withdrew.