But the fact
that remote inadvertence has been suggested for an explanation
illustrates what has been said about the difficulty of deciding
whether a given rule is founded on special grounds, or has been
worked out within the sphere of negligence, when once a special
rule has been laid down.
It is further to be noticed that there is no question of the
defendant's knowledge of the nature of tigers, although without
that knowledge he cannot be said to have intelligently chosen to
subject the community to danger. Here again even in the domain of
knowledge the law applies its principle of averages. The fact
that tigers and bears are dangerous is so generally known, that
a man who keeps them is presumed to know their peculiarities. In
other words, he does actually know that he has an animal with
certain teeth, claws, and so forth, and he must find out the
[156] rest of what an average member of the community would know,
at his peril.
What is true as to damages in general done by ferocious wild
beasts is true as to a particular class of damages done by
domestic cattle, namely, trespasses upon another's land. This has
been dealt with in former Lectures, and it is therefore needless
to do more than to recall it here, and to call attention to the
distinction based on experience and policy between damage which
is and that which is not of a kind to be expected.
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