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The purchase of one or more donkeys



The redhibitory defects are "hidden defects of the sold thing which makes it unsuitable to use, or which decreases the use so much that the purchaser would not have acquired it or if he had known, bought it for a reduced price" (art.1641 Civil code).

The guarantees provided by the Rural Code (card VI, art 284 to 294) are only for the sale and the exchange of domestic animals such as the horse, the mule and the donkey.
For the equine species, the redhibitory defects are 7 (see below)..

You can cancel the sale within 10 days but excluding the delivery day. You have more time (30 days) if it is a reoccuring inflammation of the eye or infectious anaemia.

If a delivery date has not been decided on then the cancellation time becomes effective the following day after the delivery.

Practical advice : when the defect is detected the owner must ACT QUICKLY. The veterinary surgeon will confirm the defect and the owner will contact (by registered letter) the vendor as per the guarantee.
If the parties are not in agreement the President of the Magistrates' court will be requested to appoint an intermediary. (veterinary).

The seller is not responsible of visible defects the buyer may have convinced himself.
"the request for cancellation of a sale on the base of the procedure resulting from the rural Code can raise difficulties of implementation by the brevity of the deadlines. This is why, according to concrete cases', the dissatisfied purchaser will be able, under certain conditions, to ask for the cancellation of the sale on the base of the procedures resulting from the Civil code (and in particular on the base of the guarantee of the hidden defects defined by articles 1641 and following)".

Symptoms to recognise the 7 defects:

INFECTIOUS ANEMIA: Tests to determine the disease must be carried out by using the criteria laid down by the National Commission Veterinary Surgeon and thereafter the Ministry of Agriculture will check the results. Also this disease is contagious and easily passed from one animal to another.

REOCURRING LAMENESS: irregularity of pace due to a lesion or a mechanical member disorder.

Diagnosis: the lameness occured prior to the sale. Intermittent due to the animal being hot or cold.

Observations : - It can be difficult to prove that the lameness is old.
- a radiological xray can be carried out.
- In the case of a stallion this handicap is not important to his career.

IMMOBILITY: When movement is impaired, this can be due to sensitivity disorders or a brain injury resulting from poisoness food, senility or effects from a previous disease.

Diagnosis: it is difficult to test this condition and therefore rarely done. The animal could show signs of weakness or have no expression, may be partially paralysed, refuse to trot or move back, or remain motionless and have an abnormal posture.

Observations: development is slow and progressive. The immobility cases are often followed by meningo-encephalites.

PERIODIC FLICKERING OF THE EYES: this eye condition occures at irregular intervals. Each time this occurs the lesions worsen, the horse or donkey becomes blind in one eye then completly blind.

Diagnosis: waterings, bleary-eyed, sensitivity to the light, hemorrhagic points, eyes inflamed, pupils distorted.

Observations: the diagnosis is sometimes difficult and often subjective, certain signs can be due to others diseases like the gourme or the typhoid fever.

GRINDING TEETH: this can be habit forming, the animal swallows air by contracting the neck muscles (kind of aerophagia). Grinding the teeth can be done freely or against wood, metal or any kind of support, the animals who grind their teeth, wear their teeth down a lot quicker due to the friction.

Diagnosis: noise similar to rubbing to rocks together, rocking movement of the animal, abnormal wear of the teeth.

Observations: one animal will not pass this on to another but nevertheless it seems contagious. We have observed different kinds of crip biting which does not only affect the teeth as in particular air crip biting and support crip biting but also a certain crip biting such as bear dance, labial crip biting these are not redhibitory defects, but show signs of nervousness.

PULMONARY EMPHYSEMA: air cells dilatation restricts the automatic expulsion of the air intake.

Diagnosis: characteristic cough, forced expiration, lung dilation, irregular movement of the flank.

Observations: the distribution of dry and dusty food (hay) can be the cause, forced expiration of air from the lungs. This problem does not impair an animal who leads a quiet life or a stallions career.

CHRONIC ROARING: malformation of the respiratory system (dilating muscle paralysis of the larynx).

Diagnosis: inspiration whistle, in particular when the breathing rhythm accelerates during exercises, larynx blocked involving a congested breathing prejudicial to work, Laryngoscopie.

Observations: the larynx left side is often the most affected. The roaring can be due to traumatic, nutritional causes (rachities) or unhealthy chronic sinusitises, or tumours.

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