Opalangu vs Mudianse – clr volume 3 page 048

In the case between Opalangu (Plaintiff) and Mudianse (Defendant), the court addressed whether the act of cutting a trespassing cow’s hind leg with a knife constituted “cruelty” under Ordinance No. 7 of 1862. It was held that inflicting a severe and unnecessary injury on the cow amounted to cruelty as defined by the Ordinance, given that less harmful means could have been utilized to protect property. The decision reaffirmed the principle that unnecessary and gratuitous suffering inflicted on animals, even in the context of protecting property, falls within the statutory definition of cruelty. This approach relied on analysis of prior cases reported in Grenier’s Reports, interpreting the distinction between necessary and unnecessary infliction of pain, and clarified that administrative all