Ohio Legislature Revises Law for Livestock Running Loose

Peggy Kirk Hall, Director, OSU Extension Agricultural & Resource Law Program

Livestock owners and keepers in Ohio will soon have less risk of automatic liability when their animals escape enclosures and run loose on public roadways or the property of others. The Ohio legislature has revised the “animals running at large” law to clarify two different standards for criminal and civil liability under the law. Criminal liability will occur only when proven that a livestock operator behaved “recklessly” in allowing the animals to run loose. Under Ohio law, a person behaves recklessly when he or she perversely disregards a known risk of his or her conduct, with heedless indifference to the consequences of that conduct. For example, a livestock owner who sees but intentionally ignores a Continue reading