Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-21
PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS
A Curious Custom That Was Formerly in
Vogue in Europe.
Pigs Were Frequently Hanged OF
Burned for Murder-The Execu-
ton of an OK.


| From the Green Bag.
| Beasts were often condemned to be burn
| ed alive, and, strangely enough, it was in
the latter half of the seventeenth century,
| an age of comparative enlightenment that
| this cruel penalty was most frequently IN
/ fiicted. Occasionally a merciful judge adj
| hered to the letter of the law by sentencing
| the culprit to be slightly singed, and then
| to be strangled before being burned. Some
| times they were condemned to be buried
| alive Such was the fate suffered by two
| pigs in 1856, Ion the vigil of the holy viz
| GIN at Oppenheim- on the-Rhine, for kill
| ing a child. Animals were even put to the
| rack in order to extort confession 1t is
| not to be supposed that the judge had the
| slightest expectation that any confession
| would be made; he wished simply to OBJ
| serve all forms prescribed by the law, and
| to set in motion the whole machinery of
| justice before pronouncing Judgment. The
question: which in such cases would seem
| to be only a wanton and superfiuous act of
4 cruelty. was nevertheless an important ele-
| ment in determining the final decision,
| since the death sentence could be commut-
/ ed into Punishment provided the criminal
1 had not confessed under torture. The use
| of the rack was therefore means of es-
| Gaping the gaiiows. Appeals We're some
| times made to higher tribunals, and the
| judgments of the lower courts annulled or
| modified. In one instance a sow and she
| ass were condemned to be hanged: on APP
peal and after new trial they were sem
| fenced to be simply knocked on the head.
| In another instance an appeal led to the
| acquittal of the accused.
Burned for Murder.
| In 1866. at Fontenay-aux- Roses, near
| Paris, a pig, convicted of having eaten
| child, was publicly burned by order of the
monks of Sainte-Geneyieve. In 1886 the
| tribunal of Falaise sentenced a sow to be
| mangled and manned in the head and leg,
| and then to be hanged, for having torn the
| face and arm of a child and caused its
| death. Here we have a strict application
| Of the lex talionis. The sow was dressed
| in mans clothes and executed in the public
| square, near the city hall, at the expense
| to the state of ten sous and ten deniers, be-
| sides a pair of gloves to the hangman.
| The eXecutioner was provided with new
| gloves in order that he might come from
| the discharge of his duty with clean hands.
! thus indicating that as a minister OF jus
I tlce he incurred no guilt in shedding blood.
| He was not q common butcher of swine,
| but public functionary, master of high
| works (maitre des hautes oeuvres). as he
| was officially styled. In 1891 pig was
| found guilty of having killed and murder
| ed a child in the parish of Roumaygne, in
| the county of Mortaing, for which deed the
| said pig was condemned to be drawn and
| hanged by Jehan Petit, lieutenant of the
| bailiff.'
| Execution of an OK.
! There is also eXtant an order issued by
| the magistracy of Gisors in 1405, command
| ing payment to be made to the carpenter
| who had erected the scaffold on which an
| OK had been executed for its dement's"
| Brute and human criminals were confined
| in the same prison and subjected to the
| same treatment Thus 'Toustain Pincheon,
| keeper OF the prisons of our lord the king
| IN the town of Pont de Larche,' acknowI-
| edges the receipt of nineteen sous six
| denlets tOurnois for having found the
| King S bread for the prisoners detained. by
reason of crime, in the said prison" The
Jaler gives the names of the persons in
| custody, and concludes the list with the
| item of ''one pig, kept from the oath of
| June, 11OS. inclusive, till the 18th of July
when it was executed for the crime of
| having murdered and killed a little child"
For the pigs board he charges TWO denfers
| tournois day, the same as for boarding a
man. He also puts into account ten dem
lers tournois for rope found and deliver
| ed for the purpose of tying the said pig
| that it might not escape"
IN the case of a mule condemned to be
| burned alive at Montpelier in 1853, as the
animal was vicious and kicky, the execu-
| TONER cut off its feet before consigninc if
| to the flames. This mutiation was an ar
bltrary and extra-judiciaI act, dictated sole
| ~ by considerations of personal conven-
lence. Hangmen were often guilty of ST.
| pererosatory cruelty in the exercise of
| their bloody functions. Writers on crimi-
nal Jurisprudence repeatedly COMPLAIN of
'his tNil anu TAM 1of reform. Thus Dam
| houder IN his 'Rerum Criminalium Praxis''
urges magistrates to be more careful in Sc
iecung persons for this important office
and not to choose notorious violators of the
law as indicators of justice. Indeed these
hardened wretches sometimes took the law
INTO their own hands. Thus, on the 9th of
June, 1916, at Schweinfurt in Franconia a
SOW which had bitten off the and torn
| the hand of child was given in custody to
the hanSman, who, without further author
lty, took 1t to the gallows green and there
hanged 1t publicly, to the disgrace and
detriment of the city" For this iunrudenr
usurpation of judiciary powers Jack Ketch
was obliged to fee, and never dared re-
turn
Pigs a. AccompIices.
On the 10th of January, 1857, a SOW was
| convicted of murder, committed on the per-
son OF an infant named Jehan Martin of
oaVlgny, and sentenced to be hanged. Her
SIX Stockings Were also included in the in
dlctment as accomplices, but lin default of
any positive proof that they had assisted in
mangling the deceased they were restored
To. their owner. on condition that he should
give bail for their appearance should fur
| Their evidence be forthcoming TO prove their
completely in their mothers crime" Ahont
month later, ON the Friday after the
Feast of the Publication of the Virgin =
the Stockings We're again brought before
the court and as their owner Jehan Bailly.
ueclHed 10 be anSwerab'e for their future
good conduct they Were declared forfeited
10 the noble damSel katherine de BarnauIt
Lady OF SaVigny. Sometimes a fine was i'm
| posed upon the owner of the offending
beast as was the case with Jehau DeIa-
lande and his wife, condemned on the 18Th
Oh April, 1899, by the Abbey of Josaphat
near Chartres, to pay eighteen francs on
account of the murder of child named
Giiion, aged five years and a half or there
aoouts, committed by porker aged three
months or thereabouts." The porker was
hanged and executed by justice"