Excerpt from The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of AnimalsVon Amira draws a sharp line of technical distinction between Thierstrafen and Thierpro cesse; the former were capital punishments ih icted by secular tribunals upon pigs, cows, horses, and other domestic animals as a penalty for homicide; the latter were judicial proceedings instituted by ecclesiastical courts against rats, mice, locusts, weevils, and other vermin in order to prevent them from devouring the crops, and to expel them from orchards, vineyards, and culti vated fields by means of exorcism and excom munication. Animals, which were in the service of man, could be arrested, tried, convicted and executed, like any other members of his house hold: it was, therefore, not necessary to summon them to appear in court at a specified time to answer for their conduct, and thus make them.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition.

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