Animals Act 1971 (Amendment) Bill

That is an interesting point. To gallop is a natural characteristic of a horse. In the situation that my hon. Friend mentions, a claim might well be found in negligence, but certainly not according to the criteria of proposed new section 2B. There might well be liability through different routes if a hunt chased wildly through a residential road and injured somebody, as that would be a negligent thing to do. However, there would not be strict liability, because galloping is natural for horses. We are interested in unnatural characteristics at a particular time. My hon. Friend raises an interesting point, but I am not sure that it would make a difference to the outcome in the end.