by Rod Hughes

Love me, love my dog. Even if he comes over from next door and chews up your sofa…

The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court has struck down a law that would punish with 5 to 15 days in the slammer those owners whose animal destroys property. The judges cited the fact that injury to others was not the intent of the negligent owner and that prison was the sole alternative left to the judges discretion, no matter what the circumstances of the case.

The offending article of the code specified jail for any owner whose animal, “because of abandonment or negligence, causes damage to the property of others, independent of the amount.” The intent of the passage was obviously aimed at farmers who often let their livestock roam free or enclose them in inadequate facilities.

The law could have been used also to jail farmers whose wandering cows, horses or pigs are hit by vehicles when they wander out on the road. This usually results in more damage to the vehicle than to the animal, especially in the case of adult hogs. (At one time, it was driver beware in Guanacaste province where ill-tempered range cows occasionally attacked autos.)

Judge Fernando Cruz explained to the newspaper La Nacion that from now on, injured parties must use more general civil laws covering property damage. The constitutional ruling is retroactive, so if you are in jail because your goat ate your neighbor’s flower garden, you can be sprung now.

True anecdote: In the early 1970s, one of the chief duties of the LACSA airline agent in Nicoya was to chase the cows off the grass runway before the daily plane landed. But a mule that also roamed the area was, true to the breed, stubborn. One day, when the passenger/cargo plane, a Curtiss C-46 of World War II vintage, landed, the irate mule trotted out to the noisy intruder and fetched it a smart kick in the aft fuselage, putting a mighty dent in the aluminum skin…