Ordinary cases of liability arise out of a choice which
was the proximate cause of the harm upon which the action is
founded. But here there is usually no question of negligence in
guarding the beast. It is enough in most, if not in all cases,
that the owner has chosen to keep it. Experience has shown that
tigers and bears are alert to find means of escape, and that, if
they escape, they are very certain to do harm of a serious
nature. The possibility of a great danger has the same effect as
the probability of a less one, and the law throws the risk of
[155] the venture on the person who introduces the peril into the
community.
This remoteness of the opportunity of choice goes far to show
that this risk is thrown upon the owner for other reasons than
the ordinary one of imprudent conduct. It has been suggested that
the liability stood upon remote inadvertence. /1/ But the law
does not forbid a man to keep a menagerie, or deem it in any way
blameworthy. It has applied nearly as strict a rule to dealings
which are even more clearly beneficial to the community than a
show of wild beasts.
This seems to be one of those cases where the ground of liability
is to be sought in policy coupled with tradition, rather than in
any form of blameworthiness, or the existence of such a chance to
avoid doing the harm as a man is usually allowed.
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