Section 394: Driving animals onto another's cultivated land

Firm annotation

Section 394 has three elements: (1) driving, herding, or causing any animal to enter, (2) a garden, a field, or a paddy field of another person, (3) which has been tilled or sown, or in which there are plants or produce. The third element confines the section to land that is actually under cultivation in one of those three states, so bare or fallow ground is outside it: what the provision guards is the crop and the labour already put into the soil, not the boundary. The first element requires a positive act. That is the whole of the difference between this section and Section 395, which covers the person having control of an animal who merely allows it to stray onto the same kind of land, and which carries a fine of up to 5,000 baht and no imprisonment at all. Here, because the entry was brought about deliberately, the penalty is up to one month, or a fine of up to 10,000 baht, or both. The section punishes the entry itself, so no damage to the crop need be shown; where the crop is in fact destroyed, criminal damage under Section 358 and a civil claim for the loss are the substantial remedies and this section is the least of the farmer's concerns. As a petty offence within Section 102, Section 104 means nothing beyond the act need be proved as to intention, Sections 105 and 106 exclude attempts and supporters, and Section 95(5) bars prosecution after one year. The current rate was set by Section 6 of the Penal Code Amendment Act (No. 22) B.E. 2558.