142 INJURING AND KILLING ANIMALS. 



enter the premises to kill the animal without the owner's 

 consent/^^ — the court in the latter case, after a review of 

 the law of property in dogs, saying, "Dogs have always been 

 held by the American courts tO' be entitled to less legal 

 regard and protection than more harmless and useful do- 

 mestic animals." But a private citizen pursuing a dog into 

 the plaintiff's house after the latter's wife has refused to give 

 it up is a trespasser and is not justified in killing the dog.^^* 

 Where the statute authorizes only the killing of dogs "going 

 at large," an officer is Hable where he enters a house without 

 the owner's leave.^^* Where a dog may be killed "found and 

 being without a collar," it may be killed when outside of the 

 master's enclosure, though under his immediate care.'^' 

 Such a statute does not, however, authorize converting the 

 dog to one's own use : its object is "not to confer a benefit on 

 an individual, but to rid society of a nuisance by killing the 

 dog." 126 



Where by the statute no person is liable for the killing of a 

 dog not having around his neck a collar of a certain de- 

 scription, actual notice of the ownership of such a dog will not 

 make the person killing him liable, and engraving the initials 

 of the owner's name on the collar was held not to be a suffi- 

 cient notification.^*'^ 



A city is not liable for the illegal and tortious acts of its 

 police officers. Therefore, where a dog actually wearing a 

 collar was maliciously killed by a person appointed by the 

 city under an ordinance providing for the killing of dogs not 



^'^ Blair v. Forehand, supra. 



"' Kerr v. Seaver, ii Allen (Mass.) 151. 



'"' Bishop V. Fahay, 15 Gray (Mass.) 61. 



So, where he enters the premises and calls away and shoots a dog that 

 was playing with its owner's son, such dog is not "going at large": 

 McAneany v. Jewett, 10 Allen (Mass.) 151. 



'"° Tower v. Tower, 18 Pick. (Mass.) 262. 



^-° Cummings v. Perham, i Mete. (Mass.) 555. 



"' Morey v. Brown, 42 N. H. 373. 



See as to affirmance on certiorari in such cases of the judgment of a 

 lower court. State v. Moore (N. J.), 42 Atl. Rep. 1063. 



