LAWS RELATING TO ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 95 



SEC. 2. Any license tax, imposed by any board of super- 

 visors of any county in this state, upon the business of raising, 

 grazing, herding or pasturing sheep, shall not be so construed 

 and applied as to permit a license tax for or on account of 

 lambs under eight months old. 



SEC. 3. This act shall take effect immediately. 



FENCE, ESTRAY, AND TRESPASS LAWS. 



NOTE. In the absence of definite expression either by 

 statute or judicial opinion, the status and effect of the laws 

 relating to fences, estrays and trespass of animals is unsettled. 

 Many early laws were passed on these subjects, applying to 

 particular counties, and no ruling has been made as to their 

 repeal by subsequent legislation. 



For information as to the law on these subjects prevailing in 

 a particular county, it is recommended that the inquiry be 

 addressed to the district attorney of that county, who will be 

 best informed as to the local legislation which may be in effect. 



LAWFUL FENCES. 



An act concerning lawful fences, and animals trespassing on 

 premises lawfully inclosed* 



(Approved March 30, 1850; Stats. 1850, p. 131.) 



SECTION 1. Every inclosure shall be deemed a lawful fence, 

 which is four and a half feet high, if made of stone ; and if defined, 

 made of rails, five and a half feet high; if made upon the 

 embankment of a ditch three feet high from the bottom of the 

 ditch, the fence shall be two feet high; said fence to be sub- 

 stantial and reasonably strong, and made so close that stock 

 can not get their heads through it, and if made to turn small 

 stock, sufficiently tight to keep such stock out. A hedge fence 

 shall be considered a lawful fence if five feet high and suffi- 

 ciently close to turn stock. 



SEC. 2. If any horses, mules, jacks, jennies, hogs, sheep, Trespasses 

 goats, or any head of neat cattle shall break into any grounds 

 inclosed by a lawful fence, the owner or manager of such ani- 

 mals shall be liable to the owner of said inclosed premises for fence, 

 all damages sustained by such trespass; and if the trespass is 

 repeated by neglect of the owner of such stock, he shall, for 



*By sections 9 and 10 of the act of 1855 concerning lawful fences, 

 page 99 hereof, the act of 1850 was repealed except as to counties 

 enumerated in section 9 of the act of 1855. Special acts were passed 

 later affecting all the counties listed except the following : Arnador, 

 Klamath (now forming Del Norte and part of Humboldt and Siskiyou 

 counties), San" Diego, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou (including Modoc, separated 

 in 1874) and Trinity. According to the Code Commissioner's note, the act 

 of 1850 is apparently still in effect in the above six counties. By section 

 10 of the estray law of 1901, page 108 hereof, the act of 1850 is con- 

 tinued in force in Trinity, Shasta, Del Norte, Siskiyou, Modoc and Lassen 

 counties. 



