
within a mile of them, and run right up against it if the butcher did not get it
out of their way in time.
    Dogs, again, that had been quite law-abiding as regards domestic poultry,
tame rabbits, sucking pigs, or sheep and lambs, suddenly took to breaking beyond
the control of their masters, and killing anything that they were told not to
touch. It was held that any animal killed by a dog had died a natural death, for
it was the dog's nature to kill things, and he had only refrained from molesting
farm-yard creatures hitherto because his nature had been tampered with.
Unfortunately the more these unruly tendencies became developed, the more the
common people seemed to delight in breeding the very animals that would put
temptation in the dog's way. There is little doubt, in fact, that they were
deliberately evading the law; but whether this was so or no they sold or ate
everything their dogs had killed.
    Evasion was more difficult in the case of the larger animals, for the
magistrates could not wink at all the pretended suicides of pigs, sheep, and
cattle that were brought before them. Sometimes they had to convict, and a few
convictions had a very terrorizing effect - whereas in the case of animals
killed by a dog, the marks of the dog's teeth could be seen, and it was
practically impossible to prove malice on the part of the owner of the dog.
    Another fertile source of disobedience to the law was furnished by a
decision of one of the judges that raised a great outcry among the more fervent
disciples of the old prophet. The judge held that it was lawful to kill any
animal in self-defence, and that such conduct was so natural on the part of a
man who found himself attacked, that the attacking creature should be held to
have died a natural death. The High Vegetarians had indeed good reason to be
alarmed, for hardly had this decision become generally known before a number of
animals, hitherto harmless, took to attacking their owners with such ferocity,
that it became necessary to put them to a natural death. Again, it was quite
common at that time to see the carcase of a calf, lamb, or kid exposed for sale
with a label from the inspector certifying that it had been killed in
self-defence. Sometimes even the carcase of a lamb or calf was exposed as
warranted still-born, when it presented every appearance of having enjoyed at
least a month of life.
    As for the flesh of animals that had bona fide died a natural death,
