My dog got bitten by another dog. Need help with law options please. (Yuma: crime, pit bulls)

[Joe 4520832257]

Originally Posted by pradyumn

My primary goal is to teach that guy his lesson for being so irresponsible and inconsiderate?
Are there any laws dealing with this issue?
I can take care of my dog's medical expenses but I want to drag this guy to the court and make him realize of his actions. Please help. Thanks again.

I hope that you've taken a deep breath and calmed down in the past couple of days.

What you described above is NOT appropriate. Period. As the police officer told you, this guy did not commit a crime. Your only recourse is a civil action. The exclusive point of a civil action is to recoup money you lost due to his negligence.

In other words, the only reason to take him to court is to get him to pay your vet bill. End of story.

If a judge catches on to the fact that you are just trying to "teach him a lesson" they will be none too pleased with you.

[observer53]

Right. You don't drag someone to court and waste court resources just to teach him a lesson.

Get over it, and stay away from dog parks.

[Wy Darrell]

Originally Posted by observer53

And, while we are at it, let's be sure we don't paint all Rottweilers with the brush we could use on this dog, and, more accurately, this OWNER. There are too many well-trained, well-behaved Rotties, and their owners, that are dealing with the consequences when irresponsible owners behave like this one did.

My Grandfather used to say that you had to be smarter than the dog to teach the dog anything

[pradyumn]

Hi Guys. This is Prady who started this thread. As you guys know, I am very thankful for all the suggestions and advises you all posted. It did help me to let go this matter. True, dog owners have very less rights. I apologize for late response as I was a little busy with my dog. My dog needed few sutures but she is doing O.K. Anyways, just one clarification with all due respect to the one who started 'sue-happy' post and ones who continued with it that I AM NOT SUE-HAPPY but yes I did want that guy to learn his lesson which he did not. As I mentioned in my post that I am not interested in any kind of financial reimbursements. He is again going to walk-in in any other dog park (if not this one) and behave in the same way as his attitude of reacting like an irresponsible person got reinforced. And I unerstand that we actually cant do anything in these situations and solely depends on the understanding between the owners. So, Finally I again want to thank everybody's time and posts which helped me come to a conclusion. I am ready to wind this thread up as I learnt my lesson. Thanks

[pradyumn]

Hi Niftybergin,
Thanks for the post. Firstly, its not a gash and as I just posted she needed sutures for this. So, as you said you are a dog owner you can actually undestand the seriousness of the wound. My dog is timid not less-confident. I mean that she is very playful and approaches any dog to play with and cant handle aggressive dogs as she freezes which makes her even more prone to the attack. I have ben going to thisdog-park since last 2 years and I dont think that I ever saw that guy. My dog also never had problems before as all the dogs know each other. I totally agree with you that owners should not make a cluster in the center and not attend to their dogs. I never do that. I rather walk to the other corner just to spread dogs a little bit. Its just that my dog was very far from me to intervene and I am still regretting for that. AS a dog owner who is not against going to dog park, you must be knowing the diffrence between being super attentive and always staying close to your swift and playful dog. Its just difficult. Anyways, I wanted to attend to you post as you had few questions. I hope I answered that. Thanks for your time.

[snowthedirtbub]

Just TP and egg his house and call it even

[RampageInAZ]

You are getting so worked up about what HE did. I probably would have done the same thing. 1 cm cut and you are asking for all his ID and address? Pssht, I wouldn't give that info to strangers either.

Next, you should have kept a closer eye on your dog. By the sounds of it you saw the cut but didn't see what caused it. How do you know the rottweiler caused it? Dogs play with their mouths, and they are also used to establish dominance. Stuff happens.

The guy will probably avoid dog parks so he can avoid pushy people like you.

[pradyumn]

Srry RampageInAZ, you did not read my last posts. I think your comments are just a repetition of last few posts. Anyways thanks.

[David McMillin]

Laws very from place to place so if you are considering a civil case you could consult a lawyer as many will give you a free consultation to tell you if you have a case or not. Remember you will need witnesses, dates, times, etc. to build a case. Video tapes or pictures would also be very helpful. Realizing this incident happened awhile ago you probably have decided how to move forward by now but I found it as an interesting question as I am sure it's not the first or last time a dog will get attacked in a common "protected area." You also probably have second thoughts everytime you go back to this park. I think any person entering a fenced dog park has the expectation that his/her animal will not be attacked by another person's aggressive animal. The behavior of the dog may also reflect how it may act around people making it even more dangerous. The police have their hands full so I would recommend calling your local animal control and find out exactly what your options would be and telling them of your concerns. I would also ask if the local authorities to post rules and state how they are to be enforced, ie who to contact if a rule(s) are broken. Locally we have rules posted at the dog park with animal control's number posted so they maybe are only a cell phone call away. Unfortunately animal control here doesn't work on weekends when they are probably needed most. When you called the police with this particular situation I would have thought the owner could have perhaps charged the owner with disturbing the peace minimally but I am not a lawyer. I don't want to advocate people complaining or suing or the parks might disappear and this doesn't benefit anyone however people exposing other dogs and people with potentially dangerous animals is something that authorities should be made aware of. One final note before I get off my soap box, rottweilers are now a very maligned and misunderstood breed as they aren't bad animals unless bread improperly or mistreated. The problem is the general public doesn't know where a specific dog has come from or it's background and assume it's better to be safe than sorry and avoid them. I agree, if you don't know someone's dog, especially a rottweiler, it is probably best to assume the worst and leave the area. See this link for more statistics on reotweillers, pit bulls, and wolf breeds- [URL]http://www.sandiegoinjurylawyerblog.com/2009/02/pit_bull_rottweiler_and_wolf_h_1.html[/URL] attacks are a very high percentage of rotweillers and pit bulls and it shouldn't be unreasonable to exclude these breeds from dog parks due to these statistics and their reputations. Everyone entering a dog park should reasonably expect that the other owners feel their animals are of no threat and friendly. Any signs to the contrary should be a reasonable grounds to notify authorities.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by David McMillin

One final note before I get off my soap box, rottweilers are now a very maligned and misunderstood breed as they aren't bad animals unless bread improperly or mistreated. The problem is the general public doesn't know where a specific dog has come from or it's background and assume it's better to be safe than sorry and avoid them. I agree, if you don't know someone's dog, especially a rottweiler, it is probably best to assume the worst and leave the area. See this link for more statistics on reotweillers, pit bulls, and wolf breeds- Pit Bull, Rottweiler, and Wolf Hybrid Dog Bites are Still Rampant in San Diego :: San Diego Injury Lawyer Blog attacks are a very high percentage of rotweillers and pit bulls and it shouldn't be unreasonable to exclude these breeds from dog parks due to these statistics and their reputations. .

David,

I don't know why you resurrected this old thread (the OP's problem is over) but since you did, you are sending all kinds of mixed messages here. First you say Rottweilers are misunderstood and maligned because of what is actually bad breeding or mistreatment, then you say it's not unreasonable to exclude them from dog parks because of "statistics" and "reputations".

I'm not a fan of dog parks, as I've already said on this thread. Responsible dog ownership is a MUST for ANY dog, even more so for breeds such as the Rottweiler that do get a lot of bad press thanks to individual dogs that suffer the consequences of poor training and handling by their owners (and may not have been carefully bred for good temperament in the first place), and because of their strength can do real damage if they do bite.

And, I'm leery of statistics I read just anywhere on the Internet, and I take dog bite statistics with a large grain of salt.