SPECIAL LAWS. 



BY 



Hon. F. R. GILBERT. 



Laws relating to rights and obligations arising from owner 

 ship, control and custody of domestic and other animals, 

 and other laws of special interest to land and animal 



OWNERS. 



• *-*~t 



A MAN may have an absolute property in domestic animals, 

 which is not lost by accident or the interference of others. 

 As to wild animals, they belong to anyone, so long as they 

 remain in their wild state, but when captured and brought 

 under the control of the capturer, so that they cannot escape, they 

 become the property of the one who captured them. 



The most obvious distinction which the law regards is that between 

 such animals as are generally seen tame and seldom, if ever, found 

 wandering at large, and such as are usually found wild, and at liberty, 

 Deer in a private park; doves in a dove house; and fish in a private 

 pond or tank, are property while they continue in actual possession. 

 If a deer or any other wild animal which is reclaimed has a collar or 

 other mark put upon it, and goes and returns at its pleasure, the 

 owner's property still continues. (Amory v. Flynn, lo Johns. 102.) 



The true point of inquiry in such cases is whether the reclaimed 

 animal has lost all intention or disposition to return, and if it has it 

 may then be said to have regained its natural liberty. 



A qualified property may also exist with relation to wild animals by 

 reason of their inability to remove from the land where they are, as iu 

 the case of young birds which are hatched in nests in a man's trees. 



