Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy has introduced legislation that would prohibit domestic horses from being considered vicious. The bill comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the father of a toddler bitten while petting a pastured horse at a farm in Milford, Conn., in 2006.

The initial court ruling in 2010 sided with the horse’s owner due to the horse’s lack of a biting history. However, that decision was appealed and overturned in February 2012, resulting in a pending Supreme Court case, reasoning that the horse belongs to “a species naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious.” 

The new legislation, introduced Feb. 11, would nullify that claim. “This legislation will protect owners of domesticated horses from a precedent-setting state court decision that unfortunately used too large of a brush to paint an entire species of animals as wild, threatens an industry, and would treat these owners unlike any other state in the nation,” said Malloy.

If this legislation passes, future lawsuits would be based on the presumption that a horse, pony, donkey, or mule is not inherently dangerous and “does not possess a vicious propensity.” That presumption could then be rebutted by evidence pertaining to a particular animal of the equine species