Cruelty to a Dog
Conisborough Woman’s ‘Temper
At Doncaster, on Tuesday, Martha Chandler, a married woman, of Conisborough, was fined 40s. for cruelty to a dog. She was stated to have thrown the dog over the bridge over the Don at Conisborough, a distance of about 30 feet, and and left it struggling in the water.
A miller named John James Rockcliff, of Cadeby, said he saw a crowd on the bridge on the night of 13th January, watching the struggles of the dog, which was trying to get out of the water, but could not because it was up against the pillar of the bridge. He leaned over but could not reach it. With the aid of a crooked stick he got it ashore. It could hardly breathe, and it was a quarter of an hour before it could get its feet and stagger off home.
He saw defendant leaving the bridge as he approached. P.C. Franklin said that when he spoke to Chandler about the matter, she said ‘Yes, the dog had bit me, I took it to the river to drown it and I threw it off the bridge. It was done in a temper.’
To the magistrates, Chandler said she had ‘been away with her head,’ and when she had ‘those bouts’ she hardly knew what she did. She did not intend to do away with the dog – she was ‘too fond of her.’ She came home covered with mud, and witness had just bathed her the day before. ‘My temper got the better of me.’