1. A valuable tame animal found wandering and ownerless; an animal that has escaped from its owner and wanders about. • At common law, an estray belonged to the Crown or to the lord of the manor, but today the general rule is that it passes to the state in trust for the true owner, who may regain it by proving ownership. An animal cannot be an estray when on the range where it was raised and where its owner permits it to run, and esp. when the owner is known to the party who takes the animal. [Cases: Animals 58. C.J.S. Animals § 123.]
2. FLOTSAM.
