A short account of the act for the better prevention of cruelty to animals (39 & 40 Vict. c. 77) / by Stephen Paget.

Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short account of the act for the better prevention of cruelty to animals (39 & 40 Vict. c. 77) / by Stephen Paget. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    13/34 (page 11)
    [Vic. 39 & 40, c. 77.] An Act to amend the Law relating to Cruelty to Animals. [15th August 1876.] WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the law relating to cruelty to animals by extending it to the cases of animals which for medical, physiological, or other scientific purposes are subjected when alive to experiments calculated to inflict pain : Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : 1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as The Cruelty short title, to Animals Act, 1876. 2. A person shall not perform on a living animal any Prohibition experiment calculated to give pain, except subject to the f^^^lj^lL^ restrictions imposed by this Act. Any person performing on animals, or taking part in performing any experiment calculated to give pain, in contravention of this Act, shall be guilty of an offence against this Act, and shall, if it be the first offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds, and if it be the second or any subsequent offence, be liable, at the discretion of the court by which he is tried, to a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months. 3. The following restrictions are imposed by this Act General with respect to the performance on any living animal of an -'•'^ ° to pertormanc( experiment calculated to give pain ; that is to say of painful (i.) The experiment must be performed with a view to l7anh!yT£ the advancement by new discovery of physio- logical knowledge or of knowledge which will be useful for saving or prolonging life or alleviating suffering; and (2.) The experiment must be performed by a person holding such license from one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, in this Act referred to as the Secretary of State, as is in this Act men- tioned, and in the case of a person holding such conditional license as is hereinafter mentioned, or