The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-26
PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS
A CURIOUS CUSTOM THAT WAS FOR
MERLY IN VOGUE IN EUROPE.
Pigs Were Frequently Hanged or
burned for Murder-The Execution
of an Ok.

of an OK.
From the Green Bag.
Beasts were often condemned TO be
burned alive, and, strangely enough, it
was in the latter half of the seventeenth
century, an age of comparative enlighten-
ment, that this cruel penalty was most
J frequently inflicted. Occasionally a mer-
ciful judge adhered to the letter of the law
by sentencing the culprit to be slightly
singed, and then TO be strangled before
being burned. Sometimes they were CON
demned to be buried alive. Such was the
fate suffered by two pigs in 1856, ION the
vigil of the holy virgin" at Oppenheim-
on-the- Rhine, for killing a child. Ami
mails were even put to the rack in order
to extort confession. 1t is not to be sup
posed that the judge had the slightest ex-
pectation that any confession would be
made; he wished simply to observe 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 superauous
act of cruelty, was nevertheless an i'm
portant element in determining the final
| decision since the death sentence could
| be committed into bapishment provided the
| criminal had not confessed under torture.
| The use of the rack was therefore means
| of escaping the gallows. Appeals were
sometimes made to higher tribunals, and
the judgments of the lower courts annulled
| or modified. In one instance SOW and
| a she-ass were condemned to be hanged;
on appeal and after a new trial they were
! sentenced to be simply knocked on the
head In another instance an appeal led
to the aoquittal Of the accused.
burned for Murder.
In 1865. at Fontenay-aux-R Roses, near
| Paris. a pig, convicted of having eaten a
| child. was publicly burned by order of
the monks of Sainte-Genevieve. In 1885 the
tribunal of Falaise sentenced a sow to be
mangled and manned in the head and deg,
and then to be hanged, for having torn
| the face and arm of child and caused its
death. Here we have a strict application
of the lex talionis. The SOW was dressed
an mans clothes and executed in the public
| square, near the city hall, at the expense
to the state of ten sous and ten deniers
besides 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,
mus INDICATING lildl dS d AllLllloACl VI JUS
tice he incurred no guilt in shedding blood
He was not a common butcher of swine,
| but a public functionary, master of
high works (maitre des hautes oeuvres)
as he was officially styled. In 1894 pig
was found guilty Of having killed and
murdered a child in the parish of Roum-
aygne, in the county of Mortaing, for which
deed the said pig was condemned to be
drawn and hanged by Jehan Petit, lieu
tenant of the baifff."
Execution of an Ok.
There is also extant an order issued by
the magistracy of Gisors in 1905, command
ing payment TO be made to the carpenter
who had erected the scaffold on which
an OK had been executed for it's demer-
ats" Brute and human criminals were
confined in the same prison and subject
ed to the same treatment Thus "Tous-
tain Pincheon, keeper of the prisons of
our lord the king in the town of Pont
| de Larche, acknowledged the receipt Of
nineteen sous six deniers tournois for
| having found the Kings bread for the
| prisoners detained, by reason Of crime, in
the said prison" The jailor gives the
names of the persons in custody, and con-
cludes the list with the item of zone
| pig, kept from the Ath of June, 140S, in
| elusive, till the 17th of july" when it
was executed for the crime of having
murdered and killed a little child" For
the pigs board he charges two deniers
! tournois a day, the same as for board
! ing a man. He also puts into account
ten deniers tournois for rope found
| and delivered for the purpose of tying
the said pig that it might not escape"
In the case of a mule condemned 10 be
burned alive at Montpelier In 1865, as the
animal was vicious and hcSy, the exc
| cutioner cut off its feet before consigning
it to the flames. This mutilation was an
arbitrary and extra judicial act dictated
soley by considerations Of personal con-
venience. Hangmen were often guilty of
supererogatory cruelty IN the exercise of
their bloody functions. Writers on Grim
| inal Jurisprudence repeatedly complain OF
this evil and call for reform. Thus DAM
houder in his "Rerum Criminalium PraX-
is" urges magistrates to be more careful
| in selecting persons for this important
office, and not to choose notorious violat-
ors of the law and indicators of justice.
Indeed these hardened wretches some
| times took the law into their own hands.
Thus, on the 9Th OF June, 1916, at Schwein-
furt, in Franconia, a SOW which had Bit
ten off the ear and torn the hand OF a
child. was given in custody to the hang
man, who, without further authority, took
1t to the gallows green and there hang
ed il publicly, 20 the disgrace and detri-
ment to the city" For this imprudent
usurpation Of judiciary powers Jack
Keteh was Obliged 70 fee, and never
dared return.
Pigs as AccompIices.
On Jan. 10, 1457, a SOW was convicted
Of murder, committed on the person of an
infant named Jehan Martin Of Savigny
and sentenced TO be hanged Her six
stockings were also included IN the in
dictment as aecomplces, but 'in default
Of any positive proof that they had assist
ed in maugling the deceased. they were
restored to their owner, on condition that