Animal Trials

By Edwards Evans and Edward Payson Evans

An edited version of the text Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals --omitting much of the legal analysis and concentrating on an extraordinary range of trials To try an animal in a court of law for "crimes" and then sentence it to imprisonment or death seems barbaric, but for hundreds of years until the mid-19th century this practice was commonplace in Europe, and became the subject of a book called Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals . They include: an eight-month trial of a flock of weevils, for damaging vines--although the insects were found guilty, the sentence is unknown because the foot of the relevant parchment was eaten by insects. A pig tried found guilty of strangling and killing a baby in its cradle--the sentence was death and the pig was hanged. A group of rats who were summoned to court for eating the local barley, but failed to turn up--their defense counsel successfully argued that they had probably not received the summons and should be let off. There were even trials of inanimate objects, such as a Russian bell put on trial for abetting insurrection. It was found guilty and exiled to Siberia.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1843913828
• ISBN13: 9781843913825
• Release Date: June 2013
• Publisher: Hesperus Press
• Length: 146 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"