§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ MR. H. FENWICK,in moving the second reading of the Bill, stated that its object was to make the owners of dogs liable for injury inflicted by them on sheep and cattle. In fact, the Bill was one to assimilate the law in England with respect to injuries by dogs to sheep and cattle to that of Scotland and Ireland. At present there was no remedy as against the owner of a dog for injuries to sheep and cattle, unless it could be proved that the dog had been in the habit of worrying sheep or cattle, and there was often great difficulty in obtaining that proof. Such a law was obviously very absurd and unjust. The information he had received led him to believe that in almost every county in England very considerable injury was inflicted by dogs on sheep and cattle. In his own county, according to Returns received, there were no fewer than 962 cases of such injury to sheep alone, and in no instance had any compensation been obtained. The grand jury of the county, Poor Law Guardians, highway authorities, and agricultural societies had petitioned in favour of the Bill.
§ SIR COLMAN O'LOGHLENsaid, the hon. Gentleman was mistaken in supposing that the law in Ireland was as he had represented it. It only extended to sheep, not to cattle. But in Scotland the law applied to both sheep and cattle, which was the proper state of things. He hoped this Bill would be made applicable not only to England, but to Ireland, and he thought poultry might with great propriety be added to sheep and cattle.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Bill read 2°, and committed for Tomorrow.