§ 31. Dr. ADDISONasked the Home Secretary whether his attention had been called to the number of cases of alleged cruelty to horses in which a veterinary surgeon of Clerkenwell had appeared, and to the number for which one police constable had been responsible; and whether he would direct an inquiry to be made into the circumstances, and into the mode in which these prosecutions were undertaken and the character of the evidence brought forward, and at the same time obtain information as to the methods of the disposal of the carcases of animals condemned to be slaughtered?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe Commissioner of Police informs me that in the last twelve months 366 cases of cruelty to horses and donkeys were heard at Clerkenwell Police Court; that two constables possessed of special knowledge of horses and their diseases were responsible for eighty-six and sixty-four respectively of these cases; and that the veterinary surgeon employed to examine these animals has performed his duty for many years to the satisfaction of the Court. In seventy-seven of the cases the horse was ordered by the magistrate to be slaughtered. The carcases of horses ordered to be killed are as a rule retained by the slaughterer, who makes the owner of the animal an allowance in respect of its value. I am not aware of any grounds for instituting the inquiry suggested.