122 Mich. 273 | Mich. | 1899
August 11, 1897, John Barger, at the request of the defendant, shot two dogs, one of which belonged to the plaintiff. Suit was brought by plaintiff against the defendant. From a judgment obtained by him, the defendant has appealed.
The record discloses that plaintiff was the owner of a spayed bitch dog, about 4 years old, which, he testified, he kept chiefly for hunting minks and coons. He says he kept her tied up nights, and a good deal of the time in the daytime. He testified he never knew she worried or killed any sheep. It was shown by some of the witnesses for the plaintiff that the dog was frequently away from home, and among flocks of sheep. One of them testified that, previous to the shooting of the dogs, he had seen them chasing sheep belonging to the defendant. He saw the dog which was shot grab a buck belonging to Mr. Jackson, and soon thereafter the sheep was found dead. It
It is claimed by counsel for plaintiff that as the dogs had not done, or threatened to do, any damage to defendant’s sheep on the day when they were shot, he had no right to kill them; citing Bowers v. Horen, 93 Mich. 420 (17 L. R. A. 773, 32 Am. St. Rep. 513). An inspection of the case will show it is not in point. If the defendant had shot the dog when he saw her chasing his lambs the week before, he would have acted strictly within the provisions of the statute (2 Comp. Laws 1897, § 5592). Had Mr. Mead notified the plaintiff in writing of what his dog had done to the lambs in August, it would have been his duty to have had the dog killed within 48 hours, and he would have subjected himself to a penalty for a failure to do so. This would have been equally true if Mr. Jackson or Mr. Parker had given him a like notice of what the dog had done to their sheep. The statute does not regard with much favor a sheep-killing dog. When the owner of sheep sees a pair of sheep-killing dogs in his inclosure, unaccompanied by any person, and has caught one of them, a few days before, chasing his lambs, he is
Judgment is reversed, and no new trial given.