[ London Times ]
This newspaper, most correctly known simply as The Times, began publication in 1785 and continues to this day.
The edition of November 18, 1856, carried a police-blotter report of a Newf being set upon a cat:
The defendant in this case, a Count Arthur Padovani de Guise, also a former colonel, was charged with cruel treatment of a cat. A number of witness reported that they saw him in an enclosed area in a public park where a cat had taken refuge in a bush. The principal witness reported that he saw
the defendant, who had a large Newfoundland dog with him, deliberately stoop down and throw several stones at a black cat, which had taken refuge in the shrubs within the enclosure. The cat would not move, whereupon the defendant poked it with a stick, which the cat laid hold of, and then the defendant pulled the cat out by the tail, and set his dog upon it.
A constable arrived upon the scene and found that the cat had been so severely injured that he killed it.
The defendant claimed he was only trying to help the cat avoid injury, but the judge didn't buy it, imposing a penalty of 20 shillings (about $200 US in 202) and court costs.
It may be worth noting that while the House of Guise was a real French noble family at one point, the "Count of Guise" title had become only a courtesy title by this time (that is, of no legal standing), and in the year 1856 could be legitimately used only by François Louis d'Orléans, not Arthur Padovani.