Vol. 29, No. 2 #4 (April 2006). EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT.

• Author: By Mary B. Guthrie

Wyoming Bar Journal

2006.

Vol. 29, No. 2 #4 (April 2006).

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT

WYOMING LAWYERApril 2006/Vol. 29, No. 2EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORTBy Mary B. Guthrie

When I learned that this month's Wyoming Lawyer was going to focus on animal related legal issues, I immediately thought of instances of animal cruelty, dog bites and favorite pets that have been left trust funds. Obviously, those topics would not make for particularly interesting reading (or writing). Consequently, this month's column will focus on the lighter side of animal law. I have found several opinions involving animals which present bizarre fact patterns and were written tongue-in-cheek. The tone of the opinions is refreshing, because "the legal system isn't usually considered a wellspring of laughter, but every once in a while, a jovial judge is faced with a case of such absurdity that it fairly demands an equally amusing response." Corpus Juris Humorous in Brief: A Compilation of Outrageous, Unusual, Infamous and Witty Judicial Opinion from 1256 A.D. to the Present ed. McClay and Matthews, Barnes and Noble Books, 1994.

The first case about an animal that I recall reading involved the reproductive history of Rose 2nd of Aberlone. Sherwood v. Walker, 33 N.W. 919 (1887). Rose, a polled Angus cow, was sold for $80 because her owner assumed that she was sterile. If she had been thought to be fertile, the sale price would have been closer to $1,000. After the new owner took possession, Rose produced a calf. The original owner sued to have Rose returned to him because of mutual mistake. The appellate court sided with Rose's owner.(fn1)

Rose's case should be read in tandem with the poignant tale of "Martha Pietertje Pauline," a thoroughbred Holstein heifer with "a pedigree as long and at least as well authenticated as that of the ordinary scion of effete European nobility who breaks into this land of democracy and equality and offers his title to the highest bidder at the matrimonial bargain counter," who was impregnated by a neighbor's plebeian bull, which having "aspirations beyond his humble station in life, wandered beyond the confines of his own pastures, and sought the society of the adolescent and unsophisticated Martha." (Koplin v. Quade, 130 N.W. 511 (1891). Martha's owner successfully sued the owner of the wandering bull, because the...