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I guess it would depend on how well you know the neighbors. Some years ago, one of our neighbors allowed some new neighbors to use his bull for a couple of months to service their 10 or so cows. There might have been a fee involved, but I don't think so. When the time period was up, he thought he would hear from the new neighbors, but he didn't. So he went over there to look for his black Angus bull. The bull was not there, so he waited for the people to get home from working in town. The guy told him that the bull had died about a month before and they had buried him. The guy pointed to a place where some digging had been done with a backhoe, but they didn't dig it back up. They couldn't come up with a good reason why they had not contacted the bull owner about the animal dieing and letting him see why it might have died. I was told that the matter ended up in small claims court and after many hours of time invested the new neighbors were ordered to pay for the bull. But since the small claims court didn't have any real teeth, they never paid anything. I bet they ate that bull that winter and they buried it in their freezer. Or else they sold it...who knows? The bull was probably worth $1000 to $1500 and the matter was not worth taking to a higher court. It might have been, if they had a written contract that required the new neighbors to return the bull by a certain date or else pay a stated amount of money. But the way it was done, it just looked like a way to spend more money on attorneys and maybe not ever get anything back on the deal. Those new neighbors didn't stay in the area very long. Apparently they had other business dealings that were about as shady, and I heard they ended up losing the property. None of the neighbors would have anything to do with them after awhile. So I guess I would say be real careful and pay attention to what is happening to your animal. Most people are reasonably honest, but you never know...good luck!
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