Animals Act 1971: Strict Liability for Damage Done by Animals, Lecture notes of Law

Download Animals Act 1971: Strict Liability for Damage Done by Animals and more Lecture notes Law in PDF only on Docsity! To be returned to HMSO PC12C1 for Controller's Library Run No. 2 0 Bin No. Box No. Year. Animals Act 1971 CHAPTER 22 Section ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS Strict liability for damage done by animals 1. New provisions as to strict liability for damage done by animals. 2. Liability for damage done by dangerous animals. 3. Liability for injury done by dogs to livestock. 4. Liability for damage and expenses due to trespassing livestock. 5. Exceptions from liability under sections 2 to 4. 6. Interpretation of certain expressions used in sections 2 to5. Detention and sale of trespassing livestock 7. Detention and sale of trespassing livestock. Animals straying on to highway 8. Duty to take care to prevent damage from animals straying on to the highway. Protection of livestock against dogs 9 Killing of or injury to dogs worrying livestock. Supplemental 10. Application of certain enactments to liability under sections 2 to 4. 11. General interpretation. 12. Application to Crown. 13. Short title, repeal, commencement and extent. Animals Act 1971 c. 22 ELIZABETH II 1971 CHAPTER 22 An Act to make provision with respect to civil liability for damage done by animals and with respect to the protection of livestock from dogs; and for purposes connected with those matters. [12th May 1971] E BIT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and 13 with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:- Strict liability for damage done by animals 1.-(1) The provisions of sections 2 to 5 of this Act replace- New (a) the rules of the common law imposing a strict liability tpootr cons as in tort for damage done by an animal on the ground liability for that the animal is regarded as ferae naturae or that its damage done vicious or mischievous propensities are known or pre- by animals. sumed to be known ; (b) subsections (1) and (2) of section 1 of the Dogs Act 1906 c. 32. 1906 as amended by the Dogs (Amendment) Act 1928 1928 c. 21. (injury to cattle or poultry) ; and (c) the rules of the common law imposing a liability for cattle trespass. (2) Expressions used in those sections shall be interpreted in accordance with the provisions of section 6 (as well as those of section 11) of this Act. 2.-(1) Where any damage is caused by an animal which Liability for belongs to a dangerous species, any person who is a keeper of damage the animal is liable for the damage, except as otherwise provided done rous by this Act. animals. 1 4 Detention and sale of trespassing livestock. c. 22 Anim is Ac 1971 (5) Where a person employed as a servant by a keeper of an animal incurs a risk incidental to his employment he shall not be treated as accepting it voluntarily. Detention and sale of trespassing livestock 7.-(1) The right to seize and detain any animal by way of distress damage feasant is hereby abolished. 0 Where any livestock strays on to any land and is not then under the control of any person the occupier of the land may detain it, subject to subsection (3) of this section, unless ordered to return it by a court. (3) Where any livestock is detained in pursuance of this section the right to detain it ceases- (a) at the end of a period of forty-eight hours, unless within that period notice of the detention has been given to the officer in charge of a police station and also, if the person detaining the livestock knows to whom it belongs, to that person ; or (b) when such amount is tendered to the person detaining the livestock as is sufficient to satisfy any claim he may have under section 4 of this Act in respect of the livestock ; or (c) if he has no such claim, when the livestock is claimed by a person entitled to its possession. (4) Where livestock has been detained in pursuance of this section for a period of not less than fourteen days the person detaining it may sell it at a market or by public auction, unless proceedings are then pending for the return of the livestock or for any claim under section 4 of this Act in respect of it. (5) Where any livestock is sold in the exercise of the right conferred by this section and the proceeds of the sale, less the costs thereof and any costs incurred in connection with it, exceed the amount of any claim under section 4 of this Act which the vendor had in respect of the livestock, the excess shall be recoverable from him by the person who would be entitled to the possession of the livestock but for the sale. (6) A person detaining any livestock in pursuance of this section is liable for any damage caused to it by a failure to treat it with reasonable care and supply it with adequate food and water while it is so detained. (7) References in this section to a claim under section 4 of this Act in respect of any livestock do not include any claim under that section for damage done by or expenses incurred in respect of the livestock before the straying in connection with which it is detained under this section. Animals Act 1971 c. 22 5 Animals straying on to highway 8.-(1) So much of the rules of the common law relating to Duty to take liability for negligence as excludes or restricts the duty which a care to prevent from person might owe to others to take such care as is reasonable animals to see that damage is not caused by animals straying on to a straying on highway is hereby abolished. to the (2) Where damage is caused by animals straying from highway. unfenced land to a highway a person who placed them on the land shall not be regarded as having committed a breach of the duty to take care by reason only of placing them there if- (a) the land is common land, or is land situated in an area where fencing is not customary, or is a town or village green ; and (b) he had a right to place the animals on that land. Protection of livestock against dogs 9.-(1) In any civil proceedings against a person (in this Killing of or section referred to as the defendant) for killing or causing injury w®rryito dogs to a dog it shall be a defence to prove.-- livestock. (a) that the defendant acted for the protection of any live- stock and was a person entitled to act for the protec- tion of that livestock ; and (b) that within forty-eight hours of the killing or injury notice thereof was given by the defendant to the officer in charge of a police station. (2) For the purposes of this section a person is entitled to act for the protection of any livestock if, and only if- (a) the livestock or the land on which it is belongs to him or to any person under whose express or implied authority he is acting ; and (b) the circumstances are not such that liability for killing or causing injury to the livestock would be excluded by section 5(4) of this Act. (3) Subject to subsection (4) of this section, a person killing or causing injury to a dog shall be deemed for the purposes of this section to act for the protection of any livestock if, and only if, either- (a) the dog is worrying or is about to worry the livestock and there are no other reasonable means of ending or preventing the worrying ; or (b) the dog has been worrying livestock, has not left the vicinity and is not under the control of any person and there are no practicable means of ascertaining to whom it belongs. (4) For the purposes of this section the condition stated in either of the paragraphs of the preceding subsection shall be 6 Application of certain enactments to liability under sections 2 to 4. 1945 c. 28. General interpretation. 1965 c. 64. c. 22 Animals Act 1971 deemed to have been satisfied if the defendant believed that it was satisfied and had reasonable ground for that belief. (5) For the purposes of this section- (a) an animal belongs to any person if he owns it or has it in his possession ; and (b) land belongs to any person if he is the occupier thereof. Supplemental 10. For the purposes of the Fatal Accidents Acts 1846 to 1959, the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 and the Limitation Acts 1939 to 1963 any damage for which a person is liable under sections 2 to 4 of this Act shall be treated as due to his fault. 11. In this Act- common land ", and " town or village green " have the same meanings as in the Commons Registration Act 1965 ; " damage " includes the death of, or injury to, any person (including any disease and any impairment of physical or mental condition) ; " fault " has the same meaning as in the Law Reform (Con- tributory Negligence) Act 1945 ; " fencing " includes the construction of any obstacle designed to prevent animals from straying ; " livestock " means cattle, horses, asses, mules, hinnies, sheep, pigs, goats and poultry, and also deer not in the wild state and, in sections 3 and 9, also, while in captivity, pheasants, partridges and grouse ; " poultry " means the domestic varieties of the following, that is to say, fowls, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea- fowls, pigeons, peacocks and quails ; and " species " includes sub-species and variety. Application 12.-(1) This Act binds the Crown, but nothing in this section to Crown. shall authorise proceedings to be brought against Her Majesty in her private capacity. 1947 c. 44. (2) Section 38(3) of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947 (inter- pretation of references to Her Majesty in her private capacity) shall apply as if this section were contained in that Act. Short title, 13-0) This Act may be cited as the Animals Act 1971. repeal, commencement (2) The following are hereby repealed, that is to say- and extent. (a) in the Dogs Act 1906, subsections (1) to (3) of section 1906 c. 32. 1; and