158 INJURING AND KILLING ANIMALS. 



injury from the wire to a horse driven across the land after 

 dark.2" 



In Iowa, one fencing his land with barbed-wire is not liable 

 for the horses of an adjoining owner injured thereby.^*^ 



The law on the subject of these fences has thus been 

 summed up respectively in leading American and Irish law 

 journals : 



"It would seem from the cases I have quoted that although 

 in some of the States there may be room for doubt with re- 

 spect to division fences, it has been generally decided that the 

 mere maintenance of a barbed-wire fence along a highway 

 without proof of negligence is not sufficient to charge the 

 owner with liability for injuries to cattle." ^*** 



"We concur with our contemporary [viz., the Justice of the 

 Peace] in considering that, as the general result of the de- 

 cisions, the erecting or maintaining of a barbed-wire fence, 

 while not per se an illegal act, becomes illegal if so placed as 

 to be dangerous to others in the exercise of their lawful rights, 

 such as passing along a highway, or turning out cattle into 

 the fields, and involves liability for all the natural and prob- 

 able consequences, such as tearing the clothes of travellers 

 or injuring cattle." "** 



49. Insurance on Live-Stock — Live-stock, like other kinds of 

 personal property, may be insured. This insurance is usually 

 against loss by theft, disease or accident and the company, 



"" Carskaddon v. Mills, s Ind. App. 22, followed in Morrow v. Sweeney, 

 10 id. 626. 



"" Godden v. Coonan (la.), 77 N. W. Rep. 852. 



'°'i6N. J. L. Jour. 112. 



'" 26 Ir. L. T. 154. 



As to injuries from barbed-wire due to negligence in leaving a gate 

 open, see West v. Ward, 77 la. 323, cited in § 42, supra. As to driving 

 animals against the wire, see Aspegren v. Kotas (la.), 59 N. W. Rep. 

 273, cited in § 45, supra. A statute requiring the consent of the adjoining 

 land-owner to the use of barbed-wire in a division fence is constitutional: 

 Buckley v. Clark, 21' Misc. (N. Y.) 138. 



