A very bad case of dog-stealing was tried before Mr.
Edlin, the Assistant-Judge to the Middlesex Sessions, on Tuesday, the dog-stealers having stolen a valuable dog with a silver collar from a lady, and having earned a reward of £25 by restoring the dog (without its collar). John Nunn, who took the ladies to the lost dog,—in a house where there were found other lost dogs also of considerable value, —was the person proseouted and convicted, and he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment with hard labour. But the mischief is caused by the rewards offered, and when the rewards are so great as in this case-225—they offer a very serious temptation to the dog-stealer's business. Yet there is something heartless in leaving a favourite dog pining in the hands of the dog-stealers, solely for the sake of a moral or legal scruple ; and it is a kind, of heartlessness which the real lovers of dogs seldom have stern principle enough to be guilty of. Besides, they fancy that if they don't rescue their dog, it may go to the vivisectors, which would be promoting cruelty and murder in order to prevent the compounding of a felony. The moral dilemma is a very serious one. It is a pity that creatures with affections so warm as dogs and cats should not always have mind enough to out-general the thieves.
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