§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ MR. ANDERSON,in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, said, he would not detain the House for more than a few minutes. The Bill was short, and only contained two provisions. The first of these was to include wild animals in captivity under the Cruelty to Animals Act; and the other was to treat the shooting of pigeons and other birds that were wild birds in confinement under the same category as bear-baiting, or badger-baiting, or any of those sports that had been put down by Act of Parliament. He had the support, he believed, of most of the genuine sportsmen in the House—such men, for instance, as the hon. Baronet the Member for the North Riding (Sir Frederick Milbank) and many others he could name who were regular and genuine sportsmen. They entirely approved of this Bill. But there were sportsmen and sportsmen. There were some sportsmen who were genuine and some who were bogus, and the latter, of whom there were some examples in the House, were ready to endorse any iniquity that came to them under the guise of the word "sport." With this particular sport there were special iniquities connected. Some things were done that made one's blood boil even to speak of them. Poor helpless birds that were in captivity, and unable to help themselves, were put into boxes to be shot at, and the man who did it might gouge out one of the eyes of the birds to make them fly in a certain direction, and he might take the upper mandible of the 1668 bill and bend it down to affect the flight of the bird. Some of these poor birds would not rise when the string of the box was drawn, and in order to make them rise a pin was stuck into their rump, so that they could no longer sit, in order to make them take flight. Sometimes the tail was wrenched out, and all such enormities of that kind were—
§ Notice taken, that 40 Members were not present; House counted, and 40 Members not being present,
§ House adjourned at Five o'clock till Monday next