Mexborough and Swinton Times March 12, 1926

Denaby Dogfight.
Where “Cruelty” is Excusable.

Daniel Dalton, a Denaby bookmaker, was charged at Doncaster on Saturday with cruelty to a dog.

Walter Smith, property inspector: employed by the Denaby and Cadeby colliery, said that on February 15 he was going along the Doncaster Road, when he saw two dogs fighting. One belong to the defendant and the other to a man named Ernest Robinson. Witness saw the defendant kick the other man’s dog several times and then stand on it. Defendant pulled his own dog’s collar. Witness said to the defendant:

“You are killing the dog. Get off it.” Dalton turned round and said “Don’t be saucy. You you stand there doing nothing while I separate the dogs.

A man named Wildman came up and took hold of Dalton’s dog, and the dogs were separated, immediately. Witness added that defendant’s treatment in standing on the dog was inhumane. Cross-examined he said that he did not know that Robinson’s dog was a ferocious, brute and had killed both cats and dogs recently. The dog weighed over six stones.

Ernest Robinson, of Tickhill Street, Denaby, stated that in the evening of the same day his dog was in terrible pain. It’s very swollen and it was unable to lie down. He denied that it was a well-known fighting dog.

Mr W. Norwood, a veterinary surgeon, said that there was bruises on the dog and not fractured ribs. He did not think that there had been abnormally cruelty to the dog, and he fought like it was physically impossible for a man of Dalton’s size to stand on the dog without killing it.

The chairman (Mr Mark Nokes) remarked that a certain amount of protein must be exercised in parting dogs when they were fighting. After the evidence of the veterinary surgeon they were satisfied that there had been no unusual cruelty and the information would be dismissed.