230 INJURIES TO ANIMALS ON HIGHWAYS. 



horses when first used. Wild animals collected and moved 

 about the country for exhibition are always more or less 

 likely to frighten domestic animals; but they may neverthe- 

 less be lawfully taken on the public highways under proper 

 precautions. ... In some of the large cities of the country 

 sufficient means of transit by the old methods have become 

 practically out of the question and steam power is permitted 

 as a matter of necessity, not only as a means of moving 

 vehicles by the side of teams in the street, but also over their 

 heads, where the liability to cause fright would perhaps be 

 still greater. Horses of ordinary gentleness would at first 

 be liable to take fright but after a time they become accus- 

 tomed to the objects that at first are so fearful to them, just as 

 in the country they become accustomed to see trains of cars 

 passing near them along the ordinary railways which some- 

 times for a considerable distance run in immediate proximity 

 to the common roads. Horses may be, and often are, fright- 

 ened by locomotives in both town and country, but it would 

 be as reasonable to treat the horse as a public nuisance from 

 his tendency to shy and be frightened by unaccustomed ob- 

 jects as to regard the locomotive as a public nuisance from 

 its tendency to frighten the horse. The use of the one may 

 impose upon the manager of the other the obHgation of ad- 

 ditional care and vigilance beyond what would otherwise be 

 essential, but only the paramount authority of the legislature 

 can give to either the owner of the horse or the owner of the 

 locomotive exclusive privileges. If one in making use of his 

 own means of locomotion is injured by the act or omission of 

 the other, the question is not one of superior privilege, but it 

 is a question whether, under all the circumstances, there is 

 negligence imputable to some one and, if so, who should be 

 accountable for it." ^^^ 



And in a Pennsylvania case it is said : "The frightening of a 

 horse is a thing that cannot be anticipated and is governed 



''^ Alacomber v. Kichols, 34 }>Jich. 212, 218. 



