Empirical Research On The Responsibility Bearing Of Animal Damage

Although the law of our country has already specially stipulated the responsibility of animal damage,but according to the inves tigation of judicial cases and relevant theories,it is found that at present,there are still many details in the handling of such cases,including the establishment of the liability principle,the determination of the subject of responsibility,the internal a nd external part of responsibility and the judgment of the share of responsibility.As for the establishment of the liability principle,because of the spontaneity and randomness of the animal’s behavior,the animal breeders or keepers can better control the occurrence of the animal danger,and they make other people under the animal danger.In order to better prevent the occurrence of the danger,the animal breeders or keepers should be required to bear the risk responsibility.The dangerous degree of animals ra ised in zoos is higher,so the principle of presumptive fault should not be applied;although raising draught animals can produce positive effects on the development of society,but the breeders have gained benefits,so they should not just adapted to the pri nciple of presumptive fault.In addition to making clear what kind of liability for animal damage,it is also necessary to make clear who should bear the responsibility.At present,Article 78 of tort liability law of China stipulates that the animal breeder o r keeper shall bear the responsibility,but the definition of the breeder or keeper is not clear.After summing up the experience of the court,we can interpret the animal breeder as the one who owns the animal for his own benefit and has the right to decide the animal,while the animal keeper is the person who does not own the animal for his own benefit.In the cases that there are many subjects who bear the responsibility for animal damage,the problem of responsibility sharing will also be involved.This is manifested in two aspects:the internal relationship and the external relationship.The internal relationship embodies the responsibility sharing between infringers.The breeders and the keepers do not have the basis of joint liability.According to the theory of distribution justice and profit and loss self bearing,the breeder and the manager should bear the unreal joint and several liability.After bearing the liability,the keeper can pursue the responsibility from the breeder.When there is a new breeder or keeper,The original breeder lost possession and control of abandoned or escaped animals,responsibility should be borne by the new breeder or keeper.The external relationship is embodied in the responsibility sharing between the infringer and the infringed.The fault degree of the infringer and the infringee should be compared first,and the share of the infringer’s responsibility should be determined according to the size of the causal relationship.The order of the fault degree of the infringed should be determined according to the extent of the risk expansion or the probability of risk occurrence which caused by the infringee.