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16 Holdsworth L. Rev. 119 (1993-1994)
Before the Animals Act: The Historical Fiction of a Base Property in Dogs and the Paradox of Scienter Liability

handle is hein.journals/holdslr16 and id is 123 raw text is: BEFORE THE ANIMALS ACT: THE HISTORICAL FICTION OF A BASE PROPERTY IN DOGS AND THE PARADOX OF SCIENTER LIABILITY PETER COOK' An hounde is trewe to his lord or to his maystere ... an hounde is of greet undiratondyng and of greet knowynge, a hounde has greet strength and grete bounte. An hounde is a wise beast and a kynde, an hounde hath greet mynde and greet smelling....2 Now, jist to show you the difference atwixt the two perfessions [i.e. possessions]: - I steals a dog - walue, maybe, fifty pound, or p'raps more. Even if I'm catched i' the fact I may get fined twenty pound, or have six months' imprisonment; vile, if you steals an old fogle [ie. handkerchief], walue three fardens, you'll get seven years abroad, to a dead certainty ...... Now, ve generally escapes by payin' the fine, 'cos our pals goes and steals more dogs to raise the money. Ve always stands by each other ...... The law seems made for dog-fancier ...... The only vay you can go wrong is to steal a dog wi' a collar on, for if you do you may get seven years' transportation, for a bit o' leather and a brass plate vorth a shillin'. vile the animal, though vorth a hundred pound, can't hurt you.... Nothin' can touch us till dop is declared by statute to be property, and stealin' 'er a misdemeanour. And that won't occur in my time.' ABSTRACT Dogs have been domesticated since earliest times but curiously they were not regarded as valuable property or chattels by the common law until the early modem period. This meant that they were neither ferae naturae nor averia in the eyes of the law. Nevertheless these companions without value, although they could not in law be stolen, could render an owner responsible for their injurious deeds provided that the owner had some knowledge (or, somewhat ungrammatically from the words of the old writ, scienter) of their propensity to do damage of the nature and kind alleged. Moreover, in I Lecturer is Law, University or Birmingham. 2 Edward, Duke of York, The Mauer of Gams, c.1406. 3 From the early 19th century Do-Fancier's dialogue in W. Harrison Ainsworth's Auriol or The Elixir of Life, 1865.