36 A. 91 | R.I. | 1896
The complaint in each of these cases charges that the defendant, "being the owner of certain animals, (naming them,) did then and there inflict unnecessary cruelty upon the same, and unnecessarily fail to provide proper food, drink, shelter and protection from the weather for said animals."
The complaints were tried in the District Court of the Second Judicial District, by which the defendant was adjudged guilty, and sentenced to pay a fine of $25 and costs taxed at $39.90 in each case. Thereupon the defendant took an appeal to the Common Pleas Division, where he filed a *354 motion to quash said complaints and warrants on the ground that no offence known to the law is charged therein, which motion has been duly certified to this Division for decision.
Pub. Stat. R.I. cap. 96, § 1, under which these complaints were made, provides, amongst other things, that "whoever, having the charge or custody of any animal, either as owner or otherwise, shall inflict unnecessary cruelty upon the same or shall unnecessarily fail to provide the same with proper food, drink, shelter or protection from the weather, shall, for every such offence, be imprisoned not exceeding one year or be fined not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars or be both imprisoned and fined as aforesaid."
The particular contention of defendant's counsel is that as the complaint does not allege that the defendant had the chargeand custody of the animals named, at the time of the alleged acts of cruelty thereto, it fails to charge any violation of the statute above quoted. We think the point is well taken. The offence created by that part of said statute under which these complaints were made consists in the infliction of the cruelty specified by the person having the charge or custody of the animal, either as owner or otherwise. And hence, to charge that the owner committed the prohibited acts without also alleging that the animals were in his custody at the time, no more charges the statutory offence against him than a similar offence would be charged against a person not the owner, by simply alleging that the latter was guilty of the cruelty complained of. It is the person having the charge or custody of the animals, only, who can be convicted of the statutory cruelty, and therefore no offence is charged unless such custody is alleged. But it is urged by counsel for complainant that, as it is alleged that the defendant was the owner of said animals, it is to be presumed that he had the charge and custody thereof, and that it was sufficient for the complainant to prove at the trial that such was the fact. We cannot assent to this proposition. In a criminal charge there is no presumption against the defendant, and no latitude of intention to include anything more than is charged. That is, the charge must be sufficiently *355
explicit to support itself. Rex v. Wheatly, Burr. 1125; TheState v. Seay, 3 Stew. (Ala.) 123. Thus, as said by Tenney, J., in State v. Godfrey,
In the complaints before us the facts averred do not showprima facie guilt in the defendant. He may have been the owner of said animals while the custody and control thereof may have been in some one else; and if so, to charge him with unnecessarily failing to provide the same with proper food, drink, shelter and protection, amounts to nothing, it not being an offence to neglect to provide these things, if the person complained of, even though he be the owner, has not the charge and custody of the animal. See Commonwealth v. Tuck, supra;State v. Clark,
The motion to quash is therefore granted.