When a Mortally Wounded Ox or Owner Does the Killing

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 340:8

Rava said: An ox that is itself a tereifah [mortally afflicted and unable to survive] which killed [a person] is liable [to be stoned]. An ox belonging to a man who is a tereifah, which killed, is exempt, for Scripture says, "the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:29) - wherever you can read in the verse "and its owner also shall be put to death," you can read "the ox shall be stoned," and so on [but where the owner could not in principle be liable to death, neither is the ox]. Rav Ashi said: Even an ox that is itself a tereifah which killed is also exempt. Since, were the owner [in such a comparable case] exempt, the ox too, when it kills, is exempt.

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