Animals were often the victims

The Sutton Beauty and Heritage website creator now explains how beasts could be victims as well as offenders: At Newton-le-Willows Town Hall in October 1882, John Greenall, an “independent gentleman” from Haydock, was summoned for illtreating a pig by burying it alive.

The pig was thought to have swine fever, so Greenall decided to end its days in a rather ‘ungentlemanly’ way.

Police Supt. Weir told the court that it was a most “inhuman act”

and the pig had tried to escape from its grave but had been mercilessly shoved back in until it suffocated.

Then in August 1891, St Helens farmer James Pemberton was fined for not milking his herd of cows.

These were up for sale at Newton Fair and Pemberton was employing an old ruse designed to inflate the value of each cow by inflating the cow itself ! Making the bovines artificially heavier in order to con potential buyers could cause the milked-up animals acute pain. However the vets who carried out inspections at the show were wise to the trick.

It was surprising how many animal owners ended up in court offering all kinds of excuses for their behaviour.

In June 1899 George Mills was charged with cruelty to a horse by belting it with the flat side of a spade. Mills, of Sandon Street, Sutton, claimed his beating wouldn’t have hurt the animal as he was only hitting its fleshy part!

Owners of working horses could be especially cruel. In April 1898, George Cook was sent to prison for a month for working a horse in a “shocking state of lameness, debility, and disease”.

The collier had ridden it for 13 miles from Peasley Cross to Irlam and was about to return home when stopped by the police. The chairman of the magistrates remarked that it was “the worst specimen of the animal called a horse that I have ever seen”.

Pit ponies endured some terrible sufferings too. In May 1875 Ravenhead Colliery pony boy Patrick Jennings was fined for sticking the hook of a safety lamp into a pony’s body. Then in 1892, Joseph Carey was fined 20shillings by magistrates for blinding a pony down Phoenix Colliery. The cruel collier had deliberately thrown a piece of coal at the animal while it was hauling a train of boxes.

The large number of prosecutions for cruelty to animals during Victorian times is perhaps surprising, especially as magistrates routinely ordered burly policemen to birch boys. The so-called ‘six of the best’ treatment was given to countless children in St Helens Police Court for all sorts of offences but mainly for theft.

In the 19th century schoolteachers were sometimes placed in the dock for going too far when punishing their pupils.

There was a wide range of offences that horse owners could be accused of.

In August 1918, chimney sweep William Turton found himself in Court for leaving his horse and cart unattended in the street. He told the magistrates that his little pony was very quiet and would even shake hands with anybody who asked it.

Turton’s defence to the charge was that the pony had been moved while he was busy sweeping a chimney. To which a magistrate quipped: “You mean it went out into the road to shake hands with somebody?”

Turton put the blame on women who spoiled his pony through petting it and feeding it sugar leading it to follow them and stray.following them about and straying.

On being told it was dangerous for a horse and cart to stray, the sweep replied: “I will have to sell it and get a flying machine.”!

Theft was common and punishment for offenders could be harsh. Horse stealing was considered particularly serious. In January 1884, 42-years-old carter Frederick Anson got ten years in prison for stealing a horse from Elizabeth Wigglesworth of Sutton.

Twenty years earlier Daniel Quail had been charged with stealing two hens from Elizabeth Lamb, also of Sutton. Quail had hidden the hens inside a parcel but hadn’t bargained for their cackling, which gave the game away to passers by! Quail was sent to prison for two months for his fowl deed!