156 ESSENTIALS OF VETERINARY LAW 



harmed, and incites them to keep the existence 

 of the disease secret so long as possible. Policy 

 therefore dictates that the community share with 

 the owner his loss, by paying to him a portion of 

 the value of the animal. 



When the disease is one from which the major- 

 ity of the patients will recover, while there can 

 be no question as to the right of the community 

 to institute a strict quarantine, there may be con- 

 siderable doubt as to its right to destroy the stock 

 without compensation, and this compensation may 

 be much closer to the original value of the stock. 

 Although the keeping of an animal afflicted with 

 an infectious disease is not per se culpable, still 

 under police power the owner might be compelled 

 to bear the expense of such reasonable quarantine 

 as might be ordered. Under police power we 

 sometimes require high licenses, to help pay for 

 the supervision of the business, and we require 

 owners of dairies to go to the expense of erecting 

 sanitary bams, and milkhouses equipped with ex- 

 pensive machinery. On the other hand, if the 

 owner of the diseased animal shall be so negligent 

 as to permit the spread of the disease to the stock 

 of others he will be held liable for the injury thus 

 sustained. (§§ 112, 211.) Through the negligence 

 of one man an entire community may be seriously 

 damaged. Under police power the community 

 may demand that the man who insists upon keep- 

 ing his diseased animals must insure the com- 

 munity against possible damage. It would there- 

 fore seem that the community would have a per- 

 fect right, by means of proper legislative action, 

 to require that the owner of stock which was 



