The Marquis of Hastings, along with several of his gameskeepers, was called before the magistrates court at Loughborough in central England to answer charges of "causing a cock to be cruelly tortured." Prosecuted by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the defendant was accused of holding six cockfights at his palatial Donington Hall two weeks before in which all six losers were killed by the steel spurs of their opponents. He was found guilty and fined the full penalty of five pounds sterling. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Chronicles, The Annual Register or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1863 (London: F. & J. Rivington, 1864), 102-103.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
US/the World