Section 21 Liability of Domestic Animal Owners

• Library: Farm Law 2006

The owner, keeper, or harborer of a domestic animal is subject to an action for personal injury or property damage. Dansker v. Gelb, 352 S.W.2d 12 (Mo. 1961); Brune v. De Benedetty, 261 S.W. 930 (Mo. App. E.D. 1924); Merritt v. Matchett, 115 S.W. 1066 (Mo. App. W.D. 1909). Missouri law has long held that a person who keeps a domestic animal with dangerous propensities known to the owner may be held liable without a showing of negligence. Duren v. Kunkel, 814 S.W.2d 935 (Mo. banc 1991). The elements required to impose liability for injuries by domestic animals are set out in I Mo. Tort Law §11.36 (MoBar 3^rd ed. 2003), as follows:

• The person owned, kept, or harbored a domestic animal
• The domestic animal was possessed with a tendency to injure persons or damage things
• The owner, keeper, or harborer of the domestic animal knew or should have known, by using ordinary care, of this tendency
• There is a causal relationship between the act and the injury

See also Boosman v. Moudy, 488 S.W.2d 917 (Mo. App. W.D. 1972). Once the owner, keeper, or harborer of a domestic animal has knowledge of the animal’s tendency to injure, the owner keeps the animal at the owner’s own peril and is negligent in keeping it at all. Speckmann v. Kreig, 79 Mo. App. 376 (E.D. 1899); Clinkenbeard v. Reinert, 225 S.W. 667 (Mo. banc 1920). To determine whether the owner, keeper, or harborer should...