§ MR. HEALYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the Report of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in England, show- 1949 ing that in the five months ending May 1882, no less than 1824 convictions (not including those obtained by the police or by kindred societies) had been recorded for cruelty to dumb animals, including instances of starving, houghing, burning, slowly bleeding, shooting, scalding, and worrying; and, whether, in view of the brutal character of these outrages in England, he will take any legislative steps to increase the punishment to which offenders at present are sentenced?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT,in reply, said, that in regard to the cruelty to which the hon. Member specially referred in the Question, he had received a letter from the Secretary to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in which that gentleman said there were only 61 cases, of which 48 were cases of starving by giving insufficient food. That left only 13 of the other kinds of cruelty. Ten of those were offences by boys in setting dogs upon cats, one for shooting, and one for scalding an animal. The Secretary to the Society went on to say that in Great Britain it would be no exaggeration to say that generally every citizen did everything he could to promote the detection of such crimes. In England, public opinion condemned cruelty, and there was no difficulty in obtaining the attendance of witnesses in such cases.
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTsaid, that the total of 61 referred to the cases specifically referred to by the hon. Member.
§ MR. T. P. O'CONNORasked whether citizens interfered when husbands were beating their wives?
§ [No reply was given.]