Request By:
Mr. Thomas J. Smith III
Assistant County Attorney
Richmond, Kentucky 40475
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You request our opinion as to whether the lien described in KRS 376.400 applies to animals treated by a veterinarian. A local veterinarian holds the animals on which he performs his services until his fee has been paid. He claims a lien on such animals under this section.
KRS 376.400 reads:
"Any owner or keeper of a livery stable, and a person feeding or grazing cattle for compensation, shall have a lien upon the cattle placed in the stable or put out to be fed or grazed by the owner, for his reasonable charges for keeping, caring for, feeding and grazing the cattle. The lien shall attach whether the cattle are merely temporarily lodged, fed grazed and cared for, or are placed at the stable or other place or pasture for regular board. The lien shall be subject to the limitations and restrictions placed upon a landlord's lien for rent."
The veterinarian in this situation is not an owner or keeper of a livery stable. He is also not a person feeding or grazing cattle for compensation. "Cattle" includes horse, mule, ass, cow, ox, sheep, hog or goat of any age or sex. KRS 446.010(6). In your facts you state that the veterinarian is performing some type of veterinary medical service upon animals left with him. Technically if the veterinarian were to merely keep and feed a horse, cow, hog, or goat, etc., and nothing else, he would be an agister. But he is not doing that. He might be keeping dogs and cats while the owners are out of town. But the latter does not come within the operative provisions of KRS 376.400. The statute only gives a lien on "cattle" [as defined above] put out by the owner to be fed. Such a lien, where applicable, stands on the same plane as a mechanic's lien. Griffith v. Gross, 108 Ky. 160, 55 S.W. 1077 (1900). An agistment has been called the profit for pasturing of cattle. Black's Law Dictionary, p. 88.
Under the facts given, it is our opinion that the practice of veterinary medicine upon various animals does not come under KRS 376.400.