SHEEP WORRYING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1397, 5 December 1884, Page 2

SHEEP WORRYING.

, Cameron v. Bowse, claim. L 59. Mr Wilding for the plaintiff, Mr Stringer for L the defendant. , At the R.M. Court this morning Mr Baddeley, R.M., delivered the following judgment in respect to this case, heard at Bakaia on 25th instant, in which the plaintiff sued the defendant for injuries sustained by the former’s sheep through being worried by the defendant’s dogs ; This is a case I heard at Bakaia on the 25th November, and which was adjourned to enable me to make certain calculations. It is an action to rec >ver damages by reason of defendant’s dogs chasing plaintiff’s sheep. There is practically no defence in the matter, and this fact makes my task comparatively an easy one; it is true that the learned counsel for the defendant says it would be hard to say that his client’s dogs caused the entire damage, but I think it has been abundantly shown that the defendant is the person responsible for the damage, and this after frequently being warned; and, moreover, there never was a case for prospective damages (that is, compansatiafl for losses which will “almost to a certainty happen ") if this is pot one. The case of the passenger and his wife set down at the wrong station (Mayne on Damages, 3rd ed., p 40; does not apply. The damage i must be the immediate cause as in this case, which is peculiarly one in which i damages should be allowed for injury to > the whole flock chased. The bleating of J the sheep was heard for a long tuna, and 1 was traced to plaintiff’s paddock ; he de - fe-dant’s dogs were caught chas ng the f sheep, and this they must have b-en « doing for a long time ; the ewes, a very a

large number of which were in lamb, were lying, some in terrified groups at d breathless, in the grass, and others stam JJ ing about In small mobs almost equal Jf alarmed. The dogs were turned away, but in a short time returned to the fray, and chased the sheep for a few minutes more. The owner had these sheep in a well-grassed and sheltered paddock, and within a very few weeks expected an increase of from 80 to 86 per cent to -bis dock; the weather in the lambing time war generally good, and although there was some severe weather, the pad* dock was sufficiently weather proof for all contingencies, and instead of 80 or 85 per cent, increase, the owns.- gets 56. Almost every evening after the chasing the plaintiff visited the flock, and found 43 ewes dead. He found also that almost every one had a fine healthy lamb inside. Ha also found about 150 lambs recently dropped, and about 75 of these prematurely. The ewes, though old, had not passed that point when there is a difficulty with the lambing, and it is in evidence that jp such cases the old ewes lamb more easily than younger ones. By far the great majority of these sheep and lambs were found soon after the chasing and when the weather was quite fine. Chasing ewes heavy in lamb causes frequently either the lamb to die inside or the ewe to d: op the kmb prematurely, and in this case both these results came to pass, and the consequence to the ewes in either case is most serious, if, indeed, they recover at all. And the effects on a flock, if chased by dogs, is very great, the lambs are terribly affected, particularly in the joints, and never become very good sheep. It is very often most difficult to sheet it home whose dogs are in fault, and of coarse the greatest care must be taken not to charge the wrong parties, and this very difficulty causes the sheep farmer to be constantly a heavy loser. But I hope owners of dogs in sheep countries will take warning, and not merely think of the hardship of paying for the damage that their dogs do to others, but wilt remember the great loss the farmer has to suffer from the frolicsome temperament of their dogs. In tjris case I shall allow something for the general damage done to the flock, but it is of necessity very small, as the limit of the claim is otherwise nearly reached. The judgment is for the plaintiff for the full amount claimed and costs, r ■*