Help! Dogs attacked me and ACS is doing nothing! (San Antonio: elementary school, live in)

[hadleyzoo]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

P.S. Most property owners insurance includes some liability coverage for injuries such as this, so chances are good you will be able to collect.

If they even have insurance. Hell, half the people in this city don't have car insurance so I'm sure those without renter's/homeowner's insurance is pretty significant around here too.

[GlorifiedMalcontent]

Originally Posted by y2payton

I actually agree with the logic of this statement but i dont think that it is a practical solution considering the ramfications of the issue. To be more direct i do not think that dogs are born to kill or attack. I do agree that owners make them this way. But if that owner is going to get those dogs back in a weeks time and those dogs have attacked other animals and humans. And there is a HIGH chance of it happening again with more severe results. Then you must put the animals down for the saftey of the population as a whole. I do not see this as an extreme positon at all and in fact i think it is the common sense correct solution.

just to say i agree, and my biggest peeve is not that some dogs are put down, but that the conciquences the owners face often pale by comparison to the sentence the dogs get. i care very much about the safety of the public, and why responsible pet ownership is so important. taking a dangerous dog off the street indeed does alleviate an imediate safety concern, but leaving the people responsible for them on the street does society no better, in my opinion. which is why i hope your legal actions pan out greatly in your favor. even still, i don't have high hope these individuals will "get it". as we all know, dogs aren't the only "repeat offenders"...

[DexterCat]

Originally Posted by hadleyzoo

If they even have insurance. Hell, half the people in this city don't have car insurance so I'm sure those without renter's/homeowner's insurance is pretty significant around here too.

this cannot be repeated enough. im guessing that their insurance doesnt cover a lot, given that they paid for your emergency room visit but neglected to pay for your pooches vet bill

in this event, i would most definetly sue them, their lives be damned. THEY were the ones that caused the dogs to be the way they are. THEY should be held accountable for that.

[DexterCat]

Originally Posted by GlorifiedMalcontent

but leaving the people responsible for them on the street does society no better, .

the people you are referencing have a 'cultural resistance' do doing the right thing. in this case, it would be training your dog properly and neutering all 3 of them.

if the pooches had been altered, the reduction in doggy male hormones may have had a positive impact and not led them to be this aggressive. of course, a lot of dog aggression is owner-learned...

[jtur88]

Welcome to Texas. I was bitten by a dog a week ago while walking down a city street, and went to the ER for treatment to the bite wounds on my ankle. As required by law, they called the animal control officer, who took the particulars of where the dog was and who owned it. He said he would drive by there once in a while, and if he sees the dog, he will quarantine it. I asked him about medical expenses, and he said I could file a civil lawsuit against the owners, but first I'd have to try to find out who they are on my own, because privacy laws prevent any agency, like tax or utilities, from disclosing the identity of the occupants of the house. So, I have to walk up the house and knock on the door and ask the people to identify themselves and show me their papers (like Sheriff Joe), so I can sue them.

[GrandviewGloria]

Three letters:

S U E

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by jtur88

So, I have to walk up the house and knock on the door and ask the people to identify themselves and show me their papers (like Sheriff Joe), so I can sue them.

No, you don't......look 'em up on the County Tax Records. If the Owner of Record doesn't live in the house, contact them, and ask for the name of the tenants.

[DexterCat]

Originally Posted by jtur88

So, I have to walk up the house and knock on the door and ask the people to identify themselves and show me their papers (like Sheriff Joe), so I can sue them.

if they own the property, the tax records are public and you can pull them on your own with a google search.

if they rent, let your lawyer work that out. they have ways of finding out who is where so they can sue.

[majormadmax]

My sister had a Chow for years, one day it bit here. The vet said it wasn't a matter of if but when. There are certain breeds that are known to be aggressive and to attack, which is why states ban them.

To the OP, you should read this: Texas

There's great info in there, such as...

When it is not possible to prove that the dog owner was aware of its dangerous tendency to bite people, the victim can base his claim on negligence. For a short but complete discussion of negligence, see Legal Rights of a Dog Bite Victim. An example of negligence would be keeping a dog such as a pit bull or Rottweiler in a day care center; the owner of the day care center will be held liable if the dog bites a child.

There is a particular form of negligence that is referred to as "negligence per se." This cause of action arises when a dog owner or dog handler violates an animal control law in the municipal code or county code. The violation of the criminal or quasi-criminal law constitutes a tort, which forms the basis of the victim's claim.

For example, in one case a dog owner let his dog out without a leash, and it attacked a little girl down the street who was walking her puppy on a leash; under those circumstances, the dog owner was held liable for injuries to the girl and her little dog. The courts of Texas have recognized that the unexcused violation of a statute or ordinance constitutes negligence per se if the statute or ordinance was designed to prevent injury to a class of persons to which the injured party belongs and it has been determined appropriate to impose tort liability for violations of the statute. See Perry v. S.N., 973 S.W.2d 301, 305 (Tex. 1998) (citing Praesel v. Johnson, 967 S.W.2d 391, 395 (Tex. 1998)); Chapa v. Club Corp. of Am., 737 S.W.2d 427, 429 (Tex. App, Austin 1987, no writ).

To prevail on a claim, the litigant alleging negligence per se must show that there was a violation of a statute or an ordinance. See Moughon v. Wolf, 576 S.W.2d 603, 603 (Tex. 1978) (citing Missouri Pac. R.R. v. American Statesman, 552 S.W.2d 99, 102 (Tex. 1977)).

Focus on Lillian's Law and Negligence based on failure to stop attack, if either applies than you have a good case against the owner.

You also want to read this: Legal Rights of Dog Bite Victims in the USA

The owner should be held accountable, but the dog also needs to be put down since it has proven it will attack humans there is no other option but to put it down. Failing to do so only puts a greater danger to the community and more legal liability on the owner.

What is it going to take, a child being mauled to death before the dog is put down?

[buffy888]

Originally Posted by y2payton

1. The dogs were intact.
2. There was a slot on the fence that was open and had been open for about a weeks time (we take this walk everyday) and it is that hole in the fence that they busted through.
3. The dogs never gave us a chance at all they just attacked (a normal dog would sniff or try to play)

Regarding # 1 - I believe you mentioned both male and female dogs. Just curious how you know the female was "intact" - did ACS check this? Wondering if that's part of their normal investigative process?

Regarding #2 and #3 - Have the dogs been in that backyard every day when you walked by? It just seems odd that you walked by the hole in the fence every day for a week but they chose that particular time to break out - you would think other people (with or without dogs) would have walked by in that time period. I wonder if they used to be restrained (making life even worse for the pups/causing them to be even more under-socialized and likely to bust out of the yard) and on that day they weren't?