SPECIAL LAWS 



BY 



T. A. HUNT, B. A., 



Ex-President Osgoode Legal and Literary Society. 



Laws relating to rights and obligations arising from own- 

 ership, CONTROL AND CUSTODY OF DOMESTIC AND OTHER ANI- 

 MALS, AND OTHER LAWS OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO LAND AND 

 ANIMAL OWNERS. 



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 con- 

 trol of the captor, 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 wan- 

 dering 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 

 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 e.xist with relation to wild animals by 

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

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



" A qualified property in wild animals may be obtained by a, person so 

 confining them that they cannot escape and regain their -natural liberty. ' ' 

 (2 Blackstone's Commentaries, 391.) 



Property in this class of animals is acquired only by possession. Mere 



