Horse Bites: After Pit Bulls, Are Biting Horses Next?

  Following an incident in which a horse bit a young child, the governor of Connecticut is preparing to ban the classification of horses as inherently vicious.   This decision follows a complaint filed by the family of a child who was bitten while petting a horse in a pasture in 2006. Although the horse’s owner was not held liable in the initial trial—since the horse was not considered naturally “prone to biting”—the Supreme Court issued a different ruling in February 2012: the horse belongs to “a species naturally inclined to cause harm and be vicious .” Furthermore, the new law would make it possible to overturn this type of proceeding and thus protect horse owners, whereas the Supreme Court’s ruling opened the door to a wave of lawsuits against the entire equine species, thereby threatening an entire sector of the economy. In particular, insurance premiums could rise sharply. Worse still, if the species were recognized as dangerous, it would become uninsurable and its use would be eliminated: all activities bringing the animal into contact with humans would no longer be possible.   What are the implications moving forward? Once the law is passed, future legal proceedings would have to consider the animal inherently free from any propensity for defect. This would require the plaintiff to provide evidence of a defect in a specific individual.   Connecticut is home to some 50,000 horses, supporting an economy worth more than $317 million.