30 ESSENTIALS OF VETERINARY LAW 
20. Nuisance a Question of Fact. The question 
of nuisance is one of fact, not of statute nor of opin- 
ion.?° To declare a thing a nuisance does not make 
it so; and this is true whether the declaration be 
made by an executive officer, or by the legislative 
body. In other words, a declaration that a thing 
is a nuisance must be capable of proof, by showing 
that the thing or condition either actually does 
produce harm, or is likely to do so. The Supreme 
Court said: 1 ‘‘It is a doctrine not to be tolerated 
in this country, that a municipal corporation with- 
out any general laws, either of the city or of the 
state within which a given structure can be shown 
to be a nuisance, can, by its mere declaration that 
it is one, subject it to removal by any person sup- 
posed to be aggrieved, or even by the city itself. 
This would place every house, every business, and 
all property in the city at the uncontrolled will of 
the temporary local authorities.’’ In a similar 
way the supreme court of Oregon emphasized the 
question of fact. The charter of the city con- 
ferred upon the municipality the power to declare 
what shall constitute a nuisance, as is very com- 
mon in all states, but the court said:1!2 ‘An 
ordinance cannot transform into a nuisance an 
act or thing not treated as such by the statutory 
or common law.’’? Whether the declaration of a 
thing or condition or act to be a nuisance be made 
by the legislative, executive, or judicial branch of 
government, it is presumed that the determination 
has been reached by a species of judicial investi- 
10 PuBLIc HeauTH, 201. 12Grossman v. Oakland, 36 
11Yates v. Milwaukee, 10 L. R. A. 593, 30 Ore, 478, 41 
Wall. 497. Pae. 5. 
