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ANIMALS

The owner of an animal that causes injury may be liable to compensate for injuries caused by that animal.

The law divides animals into those naturally ferocious and those naturally domesticated.

In relation to ferocious animals, the law imposes an obligation upon the owner to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the public. The onus of proving compliance with this obligation is upon the owner.

We have dealt with many “No Win, No Fee” Law Firms who take on these matters.

Animals that are normally tame, such as dogs, may have a known propensity for causing injury. This is common where a dog is known as having previously bitten a person. For those animals the law also imposes an obligation upon the owner to prove that they have taken reasonable steps to prevent injury – such as restraining or fencing.

Tame animals with no previous history do not raise a presumption upon the owner to disprove negligence and therefore the injured person would need to establish a failing by the owner to take reasonable care to prevent a foreseeable risk of injury.

There were many old cases which established that there is no obligation upon a farmer to fence in livestock from the road. This type of case has been subsumed into the normal rules of negligence claims.

Therefore you would need to establish that the farmer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent accidents occurring. This would vary depending upon the circumstances and may required fencing in some circumstances, or signs or cattle grids in other circumstances.