Moving animals on the main road

Tableman

Hello,

Is moving animals (by foot obviously) on a main road illegal now?

When I did my driving test a few years back, I recall that motorists have to stop when "a person in charge of animals" inctructs them to.

However, I had a conversation with a guy in the pub (where all the best conversations are held) and he was saying it was illegal to bring them along a road now.

fits

No its not illegal. (afaik of course)

Wishbone Ash

No, it's not illegal but the drover must try as much as possible to avoid inconvienence to other road users.

Realistically, it couldn't really be made illegal as there are many dairy farmers who have land on the opposite side of the road to the milking parlour and it would cause huge inconvienence for them.

Moving animals at night is particularly dangerous and red and white lighting is required (although in fairness I've never seen it done at night).

I don't really see cattle or sheep being driven on public roads much anymore. All Dublin farmers use trucks/trailers for transport. Is it done much 'down the country'?

moe_sizlak

its not illegal but if someone in a car hits them , the owner of the cattle has,nt a foot to stand on

Wishbone Ash

moe_sizlak wrote: »

its not illegal but if someone in a car hits them , the owner of the cattle has,nt a foot to stand on

It would depend on the circumstances!

The_Conductor

Tableman wrote:

When I did my driving test a few years back, I recall that motorists have to stop when "a person in charge of animals" inctructs them to.

This continues to be the case. If you check the revised rules of the road delivered during the last few months, it should be in there.

MrFoxman360

Around my area there are alot of stud farms and horses are often taken out around the roads for a walk, mostly in groups of three and four. Now a horse is a big animal, and if for some reason it got spooked (as they often do) while passing my jeep on the road and damaged it :eek: , who has to pay. The horse isnt insured third party! and the riders are normally just young stable girls and as far as im aware would not have an offical riding "licence" if there is such a thing. Whats the crack with that are there no laws governig this?

The_Conductor

To the best of my knowledge- it is up to the driver of a vehicle to ensure that he/she leaves sufficient clearance of animals, and only overtakes if safe and practible to do so. If an animal is spooked by a vehicle, from an insurance perspective, it is assumed that you did not exercise due caution and diligence in your dealing with the animals, and you are automatically in the wrong (much as you would be if you ran into the back of the animal and maimed it). If you hit and kill a stray agricultural or ferral animal, including deer, you are expected to report it at your earliest opportunity to the Garda Baracks closest to the scene (or if in a national park, including the Phoenix Park, to the closest Park Rangers office). You cannot assume that animals are rational creatures who know how to react in the presence of motor vehicles.

ravima

its not illegal. make sure you have a man/woman in front to warn oncoing traffic and a man/wpman behind. You should also have a man/woman in the middle just to make doubly sure that you have enough people accompanying the animals. also these people should be walking with the animals, not driving in motor cars before/behind.

motorist must take care when passing animals and anmal owner iw not autmacially liable for damage caused.

Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Is it done much 'down the country'?

Yes, none of our fields in Galway are adjacent. Only 2 of them have pens suitable for loading animals. Our neighbours and ourselves are on the roads a lot.

djmc

depends on how rural an area it is used to move cattle on road years ago
in kerry now I hate the thought of even moving the cows across the road
too many cars on some roads now and not all of them stop or wait tell cows have past

fastrac

Its definatly a last resort nowadays because of aggressive drivers who wont slow or wait.you need several adult helpers to be safe.Not a job for kids anymore (sadly)

Fast_Mover

In one particular place we have land/cattle in the crush for testing them is up the road past 2 cross roads..so it's all hands on deck as you can imagine!
Not only do you have to block the gaps of the crossroads but also the entrance to people's houses if they don't have gates. You should hear them if the cattle makes one or two hoof mark on their grass outside their gates, or happenes to sh!t on the road outside their entrance..they'd make you mad!
So your trying to do all this and when you nicely gesture/ask cars to stop as there's cattle coming they look at you as if you've 10heads..

emaherx

Fast_Mover wrote: »

Not only do you have to block the gaps of the crossroads but also the entrance to people's houses if they don't have gates. You should hear them if the cattle makes one or two hoof mark on their grass outside their gates, or happenes to sh!t on the road outside their entrance..they'd make you mad!
So your trying to do all this and when you nicely gesture/ask cars to stop as there's cattle coming they look at you as if you've 10heads..

A neigbour of mine tried to get the other neighbours to sign a petition to prevent us from walking our cattle on the road, but the other neighbours told her where to go (feckin blow in :rolleyes:). And I wouldn't mind but at the time it was Dairy cows we had walking on the road and they were extremely well behaved, we had them trained to the point where they only walked on the left hand side of the road (with a little help from a good dog) and didn't even look at any of the gardens.


As far as insurance goes, the movment of cattle is covered by most farm insurance policys, animals which stray onto public roads are covered also.

Rovi

Before we finally moved out of livestock altogether, we used to get the Gardai out to manage the traffic if we were moving significant numbers of cattle.
Anything less than 40 or 50 we'd move in batches in the trailer, but a few times each year we'd have to move bigger numbers.
We'd always have at least 3 adults in high-viz vests handling the cattle, but that didn't appear to be enough for some of the drivers we encountered.
We'd call the local station the day before to tell them we were planning to move cattle, and ask would they help us with the traffic.
We never had any problem getting their help, and would call the station again a half hour or so before we wanted to move.
A squad car would shortly appear with between 1 and 4 Gardai in it; they'd stop the car on the road with all the blue lights going, put in the peaked hats and high-vis jackets, and bring everything to a halt.
We could then concentrate on the cattle without having to worry about some nutcase sliding his car sideways into us.
That actually happened one one infamous occasion, and was what prompted us to approach the Gardai about getting their help in the first place. No-one was hurt, luckily enough, but it was only a matter of time.

I think the local Gardai preferred spending a bit of time out of the station on a nice sunny Summer's day doing this than filling in accident reports if/when someone did end up ploughing into us.
It'd all be over in a couple of minutes with minimal stress to us or the livestock, and the Gardai would often pull the car into the top of the lane for a chat about the weather/football/the price of bullocks/etc. Many of them were from farming backgrounds, and they got a bit of a kick out of getting back to their roots for a few minutes.

All this was on the N7 south of Portlaoise, so you can imagine to sort of traffic we were dealing with.
That said, I can remember moving 180 dairy cows back and forth across that road on a daily basis by myself back in the '70 and early '80s; times have changed a lot since then.

steyr fan

We have land on 3 sides of one T junction (and a busy one) in north Galway, and have at least 3 adults when moving sheep or cattle.

Now the Rules of the Road do state that you must have a person in front and to the rear of the animals, and that motorists must stop if requested to do so, common sense must prevail.

If a motorist sees livestock on the road - S L O W bloody D O W N whether asked to stop or not, put on hazzard warning lights, and if need be, be prepared to get out and help. Animals do not think the way people think.

As for the insurance question, check with your insurance company. But don't blame anyone else if your stupidity causes an animal to damage your jeep.

Wishbone Ash

steyr fan wrote: »

and if need be, be prepared to get out and help. Animals do not think the way people think

In fairness, in today's litigious society, I'd imagine that many motorists would be very reluctant to interfere with the movement of animals belonging to a third party.
Many people are reluctant to assist at the scene of a traffic accident for similar reasons.