Posted on 03/29/2014 9:57:50 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Owners of horses and other domestic animals must try to prevent their animals from causing foreseeable injuries, the states highest court ruled Wednesday in a decision that avoided the larger issue of whether horses are inherently vicious while siding with a family whose child was bitten by one.
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 6-0 to uphold an Appellate Court decision that said a horse belongs to a species naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious. But four of the justices said that the question of whether an animal is naturally dangerous must be considered individually by lower courts. [ ]
Connecticuts sizable horse industry has warned that classifying the animals as vicious could make owning a horse uninsurable. Legislation is moving through the General Assembly proposing to reduce liability exposure for the owner or keeper of a horse, pony, donkey or mule in civil actions for personal injury damages caused by the animal.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
They should have brought in an expert on this subject like Prince Charles or Matthew Broderick.
Boy am I glad I ain’t got no oxes (or oxen or pitbulls or ferrets). I’ll stick with my cobras. They ain’t mentioned.
“Naturally inclined to cause such injuries” is a slippery slope, condemning horses as a species that cannot be controlled sufficiently to not bite.
Humans can bite too. So can the CT Supreme Court justices here. Can we trust them to restrain their teeth?
For some odd reason horses always hated my late Brother-In-Law (BIL). ....GEEZ! I did too!. NEIGH, I disliked him severely.
now we have to worry about headless horse necks biting people... damn
OK a donkey it is and I also want some guenie hens and fainting goats.
We’re out of fainting goats. How about a farting dog?
The court points out that a cat or dog can also be considered Naturally inclined to cause such injuries. They are merely saying that since horses can and sometimes do bite, a jury should hear if the owner took reasonable precautions. My guess is that in this case, the owner will be in trouble. He warned people to stay away from the horses because the horses could bite, but he took no steps that I saw in skimming thru the case to prevent customers from approaching the horses.
I like my horses just fine, but I wouldn’t keep them where any customer could approach them unsupervised.
Horses are like most domesticated animals. “Bad behavior” can be the result of perceived danger. Kicking and biting are defensive as well as aggressive or even normal ‘horse-play’.
I know, because I was bitten by a horse. As a young, careless kid standing between two ponies - when the gelding reached around to nibble the mare - he got a grip on my face and wouldn’t let go. Hurt like he!! but after 7 stitches & lots of pain - I still groomed, fed and rode him bareback. No other incidents of deliberate viciousness.
Sounds like Connecticut is a scary place. Next they’ll have venomous bites by hydras, unicorn gorings, illegal cockatrice-fighting . . . bad enough that Diomedes’ mares are already in the state . . .
Still a slippery slope towards turning livestock and pets into contraband, merely because of the wording.
As for keeping people from approaching horses, whatever happened to personal responsibility? Too much onus on the owner. There used to be horses in every street in the past.
Well hell, ants are vicious, too, at a slower pace. They fight amongst each other and will eatcha alive, if given enough time.
However, my loathing the law does not make it go away...
Imagine if you’d showed them a horse’s “wolf teeth”.
If the owners ran hot wires inside their fence to keep the vicious horses away, and the kid got shocked, would the family still sue?
No, but there is a process to make it go away. It is those that attack that process that must be eliminated.
Some horses CAN be very vicious. One of my working companions had a stallion that only she could control.
One day a child was playing in his yard, the stallion, in a field next to the yard, went berserk, jumped the fence and tore the child to pieces. The father hit the door and shot the stallion dead, but the boy died.
I just came from my field where the stallion and three mares were, petted them wiped them down and fed them grain with no problems.
When young, the stallion did try to bite but we all worked that out of him real quick, and when I was young the horse I had tried to bite my sister. the horse left a big bruise on her forehead where the front teeth hit her head.
***So how do the leading zoologists trace the horse into North America?***
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 had most to do with it.
The only reason we don’t have camels in the wild, after they were released by the US Army, is they were shot on sight by the settlers.
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 6-0 to uphold an
Appellate Court decision that said
Obama belongs to a Kenyan jungle species naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious.
The Saudi Arabia Supreme Court ruled 6-0 to uphold an Appellate Court decision that said
a camel belongs to a species naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious.
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