CHAPTER 4.-ANIMALS.

ARTICLE I.-MISCELLANEOUS.

SECTION 1. [Stock-growers and drovers.]-Every person who shall keep neat cattle, horses, mules, sheep, or goats, for their growth or increase within the state shall be deemed a stock grower. Any person who shall drive or bring neat cattle into or through this state, shall be deemed a cattle drover. [1879 § 1, 67.]

SEC. 2. [Driving off cattle.]-That any cattle drover or his employee, who shall drive off any neat cattle, horses, mules, or sheep, belonging to another, intentionally or through neglect, shall on conviction thereof, by any court of competent jurisdiction, be fined in any sum not more than one hundred (100) dollars for each and every head of cattle, horses, mules, or sheep so driven off. [Id. § 2.]

SEC. 3. [Description and ownership.]-In any indictment or complaint under this act, the description of any kind or class of neat cattle shall be deemed sufficient if described as cattle, and for the purpose of this act the proof of brand shall be deemed to be prima facie evidence of ownership of such stock. [Id., § 3.]

SEC. 4. [Male animals not to run at large.]-That no stallion over the age of eighteen months; nor any Mexican, Texan, or Cherokee bull over the age of ten months, nor any Mexican ram over the age of eight months, shall be permitted to run at large in the state of Nebraska. The owner, or person in charge of such animal or animals as are prohibited from running at large by this section who shall permit such animal or animals to run at large may be fined for each offense not less than fifty ($50) dollars, nor more than two hundred ($200) dollars, and it shall be lawful for any person to castrate or cause to be castrated, any such animal found running at large: Provided, That if any person shall castrate any stallion, bull, or ram, and it shall on proper evidence before any competent court be proven to the satisfaction of said court that such animal was not of a class of stock prohibited from running at large by this act, said person shall be liable for damages to the amount of the value of said animal so castrated, and the costs of suit: Provided, also, That for the purpose of this act that any bull possessing one-half (1) Texan, Mexican, or Cherokee blood shall not be deemed a Texan, Mexican, or Cherokee bull, as the case may be; and any ram possessing onehalf Mexican blood shall not be deemed a Mexican ram.

SEC. 5. [Injuries by driven cattle.]-Any person owning or having charge of any drove of cattle, horses, or sheep numbering one (1) head or more than that number in any such drove of cattle, horses or sheep, and shall drive the same into or through any county of Nebraska of which the owner is not a resident, or land owner, or stock grower, and when the land in said county is already occupied by settlers on ranches, it shall be the duty of said owner or person in charge of said horses, cattle, or sheep, to prevent the same from mixing with the cattle, horses, or sheep belonging to actual settlers, and also to prevent said drove of cattle from trespassing on such land as may be the property of the actual settler, or may be held by him under a homestead, pre-emption, or a leasehold right, and used by him for the grazing of animals, growing hay, or timber, or other agricultural purposes, or doing injury to the ditches made for irrigation of crops. If any owner or owners or persons in charge of any such drove of cattle, horses, or sheep shall wilfully, carelessly, or negligently injure any resident within the state by driving said drove of cattle, horses, or sheep from the public highways and herding the same on the lands occupied and improved by settlers in possession of the same, it shall constitute a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty ($20) dollars and not more than one hundred ($100) dollars, at the discretion

CHAP. 4. SECS. 1-9. "An act regulating the herding and driving of stock." Laws 1879, 67. Took effect June

1, 1879. This act repeals Laws 1875, 190; Laws 1877, 137; and section 79 criminal code, G. S. 737. SEC. 4. Provision giving damages for castration of animals not constitutional 13 Neb., 254.

of the court, and render the owner or owners, or person in charge of the drove of cattle, horses, or sheep liable for such damages as may be done to the property of said settler. [Id. § 5.]

SEC. 6. [Damages.]-When the stock of any person shall be driven off its range within Nebraska against his will by the drovers of any drove, and the same shall be found among such drove, every person engaged as drover of said drove, shall be liable for damages to the party injured to the amount of the full value for the animal, for each head so driven off, together with all costs accruing in the trial of said cause, and said herd of stock shall be liable for the same, or a sufficient number to cover all damages and costs. [Id. § 6.]

SEC. 7. [Cattle to be separated.]-When the stock of any resident of the state of Nebraska shall either mix with any drove of any animals it shall be the duty of the drover or drovers, or person in charge of such drove, to cut out and separate such stock from said droves immediately. Every person, either owner or drover, or otherwise connected with said drove, who shall neglect to comply with the provisions of this section shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one thousand ($1,000) dollars. [Id., § 7.]

SEC. 8. [Removal of hides of dead stock.]-It shall be unlawful for any person other than the owner or his agent or employee to skin or remove from the carcass the skin, hide, or pelt of any neat cattle or sheep found dead, except when such stock is killed by railroad trains, when the employees of such railroads may remove the hides from stock so killed. [Id., § 8.]

SEC. 9. [Rewards.]-The county commissioners of the several counties may offer and pay rewards for the detection of those violating this act. [Id., § 9.]

CONTAGIOUS DISEASES.

SEC. 10. [Diseased cattle.]-That every person shall so restrain his diseased or distempered cattle, or such as are under his care, that they may not go at large; and no person or persons shall drive any diseased or distempered cattle affected with any contagious or infectious disease, into or through this state or from one point thereof to another. Any person or persons offending against this section, shall on conviction thereof before any justice of the peace, forfeit not less than five nor more than twenty-five dollars for every head of such cattle, and be liable for all costs and damages. [1867 § 1, 74. G. S. 89.]

SEC. 11. [Cattle to be impounded.]—Any justice of the peace, upon proof before him, that any cattle are going at large or are driven in or through his county in violation of the preceding section, shall order a constable or sheriff to impound them, and the owner thereof shall be held liable for all costs and damages. [Id., § 2.]

SEC. 12. [Fees of officers.]—The sheriff or constable who may execute the order of any justice of the peace as aforesaid, to impound any such cattle, shall have twenty-five cents per head for the first fifty, and five cents for each additional head, to be paid by the defendant upon conviction thereof, but in case the defendant be discharged, then such costs to be paid by the complainant; and if any officer to whom any order under this law is directed, should fail to execute, he shall forfeit, in case of a failure, a sum not less than one hundred dollars. [Id., § 3.]

SEC. 13. [Glanders.]-It shall not be lawful for any person to use, let, sell, or permit to run at large any horse, mule, or ass diseased with the glanders. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall pay a fine of not less than five nor more than fifty dollars, and shall be liable for all damages. [Id., § 4.]

SEC. 14. [Fines.]-All fines and forfeitures incurred under the provisions of this act shall be recovered by action before any justice of the peace, and all such fines shall be paid into the school fund, in and for the county having jurisdiction of the case. [Id., § 5.]

SECS. 10-15. Laws 1867, 74. See also secs. 75, 76, and 77 Criminal Code, and secs. 36-39, 60, and 61 this chapter. See also Article II, this chapter.

SEC. 15. [Judgment.]-In all cases of conviction under the provisions of this act, the justice shall enter judgment for the fine and costs against the defendant, and may commit him until the judgment is satisfied, or issue execution on the judgment for the use of the common schools of the county. [Id., § 6.]

DESTRUCTION OF ANIMALS BY DOGS.

SEC. 16. [Owners of dogs liable for damages.]-That the owner or owners of a dog or dogs shall be liable in an action for all damages that may accrue to any person or persons by reason of such dog or dogs killing, wounding, worrying, or chasing any sheep or other domestic animal belonging to such other person or persons; and the damage done may be recovered in any court having jurisdiction of the amount claimed. [1877 § 1, 156.]

SEC. 17. [Joint liability.]—If two or more dogs owned by different persons shall kill, wound, chase, or worry any sheep or other domestic animal, such persons shall be jointly and severally liable for all damage done by such dogs. [Id., § 2.]

SEC. 18. [Dog tax.]-The municipal authorities of any county, city, town, or township shall have authority by ordinance or resolution, entered at large on the proper journal or record of proceedings of such municipality, to impose a license tax of not more than five dollars for each dog, on the owner or harborer of any dog or dogs, which license tax shall constitute a special fund for the payment of all damages done by dogs within the limits of the body imposing the same, to be paid under such regulations as shall be provided by such ordinance or resolutions. [Id., § 3.]

SEC. 19. [Dogs to be killed.]-Any person shall have the right to kill any dog found doing any damage aforesaid to any sheep or domestic animal, or shall have just and reasonable ground to believe that such dog has been killing, wounding, chasing, or worrying such sheep or animal, and no action shall be maintained for such killing. [Id., § 4.]

SEC. 20. [Dog collar.]-It shall be the duty of every owner or owners of any dog or dogs to securely place upon the neck of such dog or dogs a good and sufficient collar with a metallic plate thereon, on which shall be plainly inscribed the name of such owner. It shall be lawful for any person to kill any dog found running at large on whose neck there is no collar as aforesaid, and no action shall be maintained for such killing. [Id., § 5.]

SEC. 21. [Who deemed owner.]-Every person who shall harbor about his or her premises a collarless dog, for the space of ten days, shall be taken and held as the owner, and shall be liable for all damage which such dog shall commit. [Id., § 6.]

SEC. 22. [Penalty.]-The owner or owners of any dog or dogs who shall permit the same to run at large for ten days after this act shall take effect, without such collar as herein before described being securely placed upon the neck of such dog or dogs, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined in any sum not exceeding twenty-five dollars, which when collected shall be paid to the county treasury for the benefit of the school fund of the county in which the fine was imposed. [Id., § 7.]

DEER.

SEC. 23. [Penalty for destruction of deer.]-If any person or persons within the counties of Burt, Washington, Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Saunders, and Dodge shall chase or pursue any deer with any hound or dog, such person or persons on conviction thereof before any court of competent jurisdiction shall pay a fine of twenty dollars or be confined in the county jail for a period of not less than ten nor more than twenty days, at the discretion of the court, and shall pay costs of prosecution. Such fines shall be paid to the school fund of the county in which such offense was committed. [G. S. § 1, 90.]

SECS. 16-22.

"An act to prevent sheep and other domestic amimals from being killed by dogs." Laws 1877. 156. Took effect June 1, 1877. When dogs may be killed, Nehr v. State, 35 Neb., 638. SEC. 18. See sec. 69, subdivision X., chap. 14.

SEC. 23. "An act to prevent the chasing and destruction of deer by hounds in certain counties of the state of Nebraska." G. S. 90. Took effect February 27, 1873.

STATE BOUNTIES FOR WOLVES, WILD CATS, AND COYOTES.

SEC. 24. [Bounties.]-That any person killing wolves, wild cats, or coyotes within the boundaries of the state of Nebraska, and presenting the scalps of the same, with the two ears and face down to the nose, to the county clerk of the county in which the same were killed, with satisfactory proof upon oath that the same were killed within the boundaries of the state of Nebraska, shall be entitled to the following bounties: for every wolf so killed, one dollar; for every wild cat so killed, one dollar; for every coyote so killed, one dollar. Certificates of such bounties, when so allowed, shall be issued by the county clerk to the person entitled thereto, and upon the same being filed with the auditor of public accounts the said auditor shall draw his warrant on the treasury of the state against the general fund, for the amount of such certificate, in favor of the person named therein or his assignee. [1877 § 1, 213.]

SEC. 25. [Certificate.]-It shall be the duty of the county clerk to give such persons on receiving said scalps a certificate of the number and kind of such scalps accepted by him for bounty, and deface such scalp by cutting the same in two parts so as to separate the two ears, and shall keep a record of the number and kind by him certified and destroyed. [Id. § 2.]

SEC. 26. [Oath.]-All scalps upon which bounties are claimed shall be presented to the clerk of the county in which the animals were taken and killed, and the applicant for bounty will be required by the said clerk to make his statement under oath as to where the said animals were taken and killed. [Id. § 3.]

SEC. 27. [Penalty.]-Any person driving, baiting, enticing, bringing or taking any of the animals mentioned in this act from outside the boundaries of this state, or from any one unorganized territory in this state, into any organized county thereof, for the purpose of procuring bounties thereon, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be subject to a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars, for each and every offense so committed. [Id. § 4.]

LIENS UPON LIVE STOCK.

SEC. 28. [Lien for keeping.]—When any person shall procure, contract with, or hire any other person to feed and take care of any kind of live stock, the person so procured, contracted with, or hired, shall have a lien upon such property for the feed and care bestowed by him upon the same for the contract price therefor, and in case no price has been agreed upon, then for the reasonable value of such feed and care. The person entitled to any lien under the provisions of this section, may foreclose the same in the manner provided by law for the foreclosing of chattel mortgages; Provided, That at least thirty (30) days before the sale of the property, for the satisfaction of such lien, the person entitled thereto shall file in the office of the county clerk in the county in which said livestock may be fed and kept, an affidavit describing said livestock, and setting forth the amount justly due for the feeding and keeping of the same. [G. S. 91. Amended March 21, 1889. Took effect June 30, 1889. Laws 1889, chap. 31.]

COUNTY BOUNTIES FOR WOLVES, WILD CATS, AND COYOTES.

SEC. 29. [Bounties.]-That any person or persons killing wolves, wild cats, coyotes, or mountain lions within the boundaries of such counties as may at any election, by a vote of the majority of electors voting, to determine as hereafter provided, and presenting the scalps of the same, with the two ears and face down to the nose, to the county clerk of the county in which the same were killed, with satisfactory proof in writing, upon oath, that the same were killed within the boundaries of the aforesaid counties, shall be entitled to the following bounties: For every wolf so killed, three

SECS. 24-27. "An act to provide for the payment of bounties for the destruction of wild animals in the state of Nebraska." Laws 1877, 213. Took effect June 1, 1877.

SEC. 28. "An act to provide liens on livestock for their keeping." Laws 12th Sess. Ter. 1867, 12 G. S. 91. Took effect Feb. 18, 1867. Cited 8 Neb., 505, Lien of mortgagee held superior to lien of liverymen, 12 Neb., 68. It is the contract, the procuring, contracting, or hiring which gives the lien, and nothing else. 20 Id.. 91. Continuance of possession necessary. 12 Neb., 68. See also Sec. 40. Lien is subordinate to that of chattel mortgage previously executed, delivered, and recorded, 22 Neb., 70. Cited, 31 Id., 581.

dollars; for every wild cat so killed, one dollar; for every coyote so killed, one dollar; for every mountain lion so killed, three dollars. Certificates of such bounties when so allowed, shall be issued by the county clerk to the person entitled thereto, and upon the presentation of such certificates to the county treasurer said treasurer shall pay to the holder of such certificate the amount named therein out of the county general fund. [Amended 1885, chap. 6.]

SEC. 30. [Duty of county clerk.]—It shall be the duty of the county clerk to give such person or persons, on receiving said scalps, a certificate of the number and kind of such scalps accepted by him for bounty, and deface such scalps by cutting the same in two parts, so as to separate the two ears, and shall keep a record of the number and kind by him certified and destroyed.

SEC. 31. [Proof of killing.]—All scalps upon which bounties are claimed shall be presented to the clerk of the county in which the animals were taken and killed, and the applicant for bounty will be required by the said clerk to make his statement in writing, under oath, as to where the said animals were taken and killed, and any person making a false statement under oath as provided in this act, shall be liable to prosecution for perjury, and suffer the penalties of the same as provided by the laws of this state.

SEC. 32. [Penalty.]-Any person or persons driving, baiting, enticing, bringing, or taking any of the animals mentioned in this act from outside the boundaries of such counties as are provided in this act, for the purpose of procuring bounties thereon, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be subject to a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than fifty dollars for each and every offense so committed.

SEC. 33. [Election.]-Upon the petition of fifty taxpayers of any county, to the county commissioners or county board, favorable to granting bounties for the destruction of wild animals, as provided in section one of this act, it shall be the duty of said county commissioners or county board to present the prayer of the said petitioners to the electors of such county at the next succeeding election. [Amended 1885, chap. 6.]

SEC. 34. [Ballots.]-The voting on the aforesaid proposition shall be by ballot, the ballots having written upon them, "For bounties," or "Against bounties," and the votes to be canvassed as other votes are canvassed in precinct elections, and if a majority of the votes cast at such election be in favor of the proposition as contained in this act, the same shall be in effect within ninety days after such election.

SEC. 35. [Revocation.]-Any county desiring to be released from the paying of bounties, as provided in this act, may revoke the same by the same authority and manner of procedure as provided in section five of this act, for the establishment of the

same.

DISEASED CATTLE.

SEC. 36. [Importation.]—It shall not be lawful for the owner of any domestic animal or animals, or any person having them in charge, knowingly to import or drive into this state any animal or animals having any contagious or infectious disease; and any person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by fine in any sum not less than $1.00 nor more than $100.00, and be imprisoned in the county jail not more than three months, or both, in the discretion of the court. [1883, chap. III.]

SEC. 37. [Running at Large.]-Any person being the owner of any domestic animal or animals, or having the same in charge, who shall turn out, or suffer any such domestic animal or animals having any contagious or infectious disease, knowing the same to be so diseased, to run at large upon any uninclosed land, common, or highway, or shall let the same approach within twenty rods of any highway, or shall sell or

SECS. 29-35. "An act to provide for the payment of bounties for the destruction of wild animals in the state of Nebraska." Laws 1879, 162. Took effect June 1, 1879. Whether this act repeals the act of 1877, Secs. 24-27, this chapter, quære.

SECS. 36-39. "An act to prevent the importation, selling, or running at large of domestic animal or animals, affected with any infectious or contagious disease." Passed and took effect Feb. 20. 1883.