PUNISHING NAZI CRIMINALS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SIR,—One of the first legislative acts of the Third Reich was to issue fin Animal Protection Law dated November 24th, 1933, and signed by Hitler himself. The, following details of it supply an ironic comment on recent revelations of Nazi cruelty.
Section I stated: I. It shall be prohibited unnecessarily to torture or brutally to ill-treat an animal.
2. To torture an animal is to cause it prolonged or repeated pain or suffering ; the pain inflicted is deemed unnecessary when it serves no reasonable justifiable purpose. To ill-treat an animal means. to cause it pain. Ill-treatment is deemed brutal when it is inspired by a lack of feeling.
Ambng the prohibitions of Section II were the following—small-Scale mOtlelt perhaps of the Nazi treatment of Jews, political opponents, foreign workers and prisoners-of-war : ,. By neglect, to inflict pain or injury in the maintenance, care, housing or transport of animals.
2. To use an animal wantonly for the performance of work which is obviously beyond its strength or which is calculated to cause it pain, or for which its condition renders it unfit.
5. To abandon one's own domestic animal with the object of getting rid of it.
6. To sharpen or test the keenness of dots by using cats, foxcubs or other animals for the purpose.
In Section III strict regulation was provided of the use of living tnimals.for purposes of research. Goring was a lover of dogs and may have induced his master to lump scientific research and cruelty to animals together.
In Section IV severe penalties of fine and imprisonment were pre- licribed for torturing or ill-treating an animal, or for performing experiments on living animals far Arposes of research without the necessary licence. One may recall that Al Capone was finally jailed in San Francisco Bay for failure to pay income tax. If, under German law, men may claim the same rights as animals, then tens of thousands of Nazi criminals could be severely punished under Hitler's own Animal
Protection Law of 1933.—Yours, &c., A. V. HILL.
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