The Press., 1889-11-28
OVERLOOKING A HORSE.

well Oid not consider an inquest necessary. -----.-.s.-.--..--.-
 OVERLOOKING HORSE.
 The following, taken from ssBishop on Statutory Grimes" edition of 1878, page 6S9-is believed to be sound law-the world over, on the above subject. It was written by Mr.4Angell. in reviewing de. clsIon of a Massachusetts court in 1888, that there was no cruelty, because other horses of the same weight were able to draw the load in question. It was the first and last decision of the kind ever ren. dered in Massachusetts.
 Must an animal be worked until he breaks blood vessel or drops dead, before the law takes cognizance Is the horse to be strained, or rsworked to: the extreme limit of his strength, before such straininR oriworking becomes a cruelty, (that is be. fore the act of his master becomes sover- loading ?; Can an3expert, ,:Or any number of experts, say what is the limit of strength or endurance of any horse, simply by knowing his weightP It seems to me that these questions can be easily answered. Horses, like men, are of different ages, constitutions, temperaments, formation, and degrees of strength One horse, just like one man, may be twice as fast, twice as tough, twice as strong, as another of precisely the same weight; and inasmuch as horses, like men, are liable to great variety of sicknesses, and suffer, just like men, from previous overworkine and from heaA want of proper rest, food, water, shelter, and care, it follows that the same horse, like the same man, may be able to perform without injury more labor in one day than another. ,,--,--.-...
 fCan thousand experts prove that all men of given weight or size are equally competent, on every day of the year, to perform given labor? Can their testi- mony establish how much load man of given weight should carry, and how far he should carry it on given day, without re- gard to whether the man is old or young. sick or well, strong or weak, tough or tender, already tired or rested, ulf.fed, or starved, or the day hot or cold ? And does not precisely the same reason apply to the horse-that what one horse can do one day has no force in showing what another ought to do on another day, unless you show the weather, age, strength, tough ness, and bodily condition of the two to be precisely similar? I say, then, that it is just as impossible for any number of ex- perts, knowing only the weight or size of horse, and nothing of his age, health, strength, toughness, and bodily condition. to establish what is, or is not, overlooking him, as it would be, knowing only the size or weight of man, and nothing of his age, health, strength, toughness, or bodily condition, to establish what is or is not an overload for him. .-. s4. .
 "How, then, are we to determine when a horse is overloaded? Just exactly and precisely as we determine when a man is overloaded. First, we are to take his own evidence. If man stops and says, T am overloaded, l am working too hard, feel that the task put upon me is too heavy,' that is evidence. So when the horse, or dinarily kind and willing to pull, comes with heavy load to rise of land, and, after one or two efforts, stops and says, as plainly as he can speak it, T am overload. ed, am working too hard, feel that the task pnt upon me is too heavy, that is evil dence 1; and there is no court or jury, or man with the heart of man., who will not recognize it as such. Besides, the signs of overwork arej just as visible in the horse as the man. No magistrate or juror would have any difficulty in deciding in his own mind whether case to which his attention might be attracted in our public streets was or was not case of cruelty. Is not, then, the testimony of competent, inteli- gent, and credible -bystanders, who see how the horse looks and acts, and his bod lily condition, health, and ,capability to perform the labor required, the best evi- dence that can possibly be obtained? :? Where can you get better? And when disinterested and intelligent witnesses, who are present and see and hear all that is said aDdedone in a given case, voluntarily leave thair ordinary avocations, and come into court to testify that they are fully sat. isfied that the case is a clear case of cruel ty, can such evidence be overbalanced by that of any number of experts who are not present. see nothing that occurs, know nothingsM the age, health, strength, or bodily condition of the horse at the time. and who base their calculations simply up- on the ayoirdupois weight of the animal? It is perfectly evident, then, I say, that the highest and best evidence which any court or jaEy can ask or possibly obtain in case of overlooking. overworking, or over- driving, is the evidence of the horse him. self, as interpreted by those present when the cruelty IS inflicted.
 Cruelty begins very far short of taking the extreme strength of the animal. God has given to men and animals an excess of strength, to be husbanded carefully and used occasionally. But to task that strength to it's full limit unnecessarily is against nature, breaks down the man or the animal before his or its time, and is cruelty against which men, having speech and reason, may protect themselves, but against which animals, having neither speech nor reason, like men, must look to them for protection" ~
 
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