Animals Act 1971 (Amendment) Bill

The answer lies in the cases to which I previously referred. They highlighted a series of examples that made people uneasy about the conclusions of those cases. It was felt that people should have been compensated, but they clearly were not being compensated. The elephant case did lead to compensation, but the case of the ox in the ironmonger's shop did not. That case and others led to the pressure for law reform. The Goddard report came out in 1953, having reached its difficult conclusions, and the Government of the day must have put it in the too hard to do box. In 1967, the Law Commission made further proposals. It said:"““We do not consider that it would be desirable to impose strict liability in respect of damage done by all animals.””" I take a different view of that, but it went on to say that it would be better to establish a category of animals for which there would be strict liability because they present a special danger, either to persons or property. The Law Commission recommended the imposition of strict liability in such circumstances. The category is not confined only to animals ferae naturae, but applies more widely, which is how we ended up with section 2 of the Animals Act 1971. The Law Commission thought that strict liability should be imposed in respect of any injury or damage done by animals of a species presenting a special danger to persons or property. The question of whether an animal belongs to a dangerous species should depend, in the case of a category of animals ferae naturae, on a test prescribed by law. That test should take into account the risks to persons or property in the circumstances of this country. There are arguments about whether camels, for example, are domestic animals, and in the UK, at least, camels are considered to be wild animals, despite the fact that they are often domesticated in other parts of the world. The Law Commission also discusses the issue of strict liability being imposed in respect of injury or damage done by an animal that does not belong to a dangerous species or if an animal had no dangerous characteristics from which the injury or damage resulted—which is the sort of case that we are talking about now—even if those characteristics are not common to the species as a whole, but are shared by other animals within the species, such as age, a particular time of year or in certain conditions. It also recommends strict liability in respect of either of the two categories, but that it should not be dependent on escape from control, which is where we are with the Mirvahedy case, because it did not turn on the fact that the animal had escaped. In fact, it turned on the fact that the animal was on the highway in a spooked condition. That of course leads to the question, which is discussed in some of the law books on the subject, of what would have happened if the spooking of the horse had ended and it was simply stood in the road not knowing what to do with itself—in other words, behaving normally after its anguish had ended. On a proper interpretation of Mirvahedy in those circumstances, it might well be that the liability would not have attached—an interesting moot point. I am pleased to say that the court did not decide on that point, although it is discussed in the law books. The Law Commission also dealt with the question of negligence and recommended that liability should attach—I apologise, because that point has to do with the section 5 defences of contributory negligence and being responsible for one's own injuries. The Law Commission's report gave rise to the debate that led to the Animals Act 1971. The first Bill on the issue was introduced in 1969, by the then Labour Government, and it was based on the model recommended by the Law Commission. The problem was that between 1969 and 1971 there was a general election and the further problem was that the Labour party did not win that election. When the new Conservative Government introduced the Animals Bill mark 2 in 1971, clause 2 had changed. It read as section 2 stands rather than as did the section recommended by the Law Commission. They should have stuck with the Law Commission definition. This is a disgrace on the Conservative party. All the problems come back to their decision in 1971 on how to phrase the Bill.