Defending Yourself from Dog Attacks: Legal Perspectives

A dog attack can inflict fear, a scar, or disfigurement. As such, many people are always ready to defend themselves or a loved one from a canine attack. Although self-defense is legal, most people wonder about their limits if they hurt a dog before or during the attack.

In a split-second decision, you could draw a knife or a gun to prevent a potential savage attack from a dog. However, is it legal?

It is also essential to know the circumstances in which you can wound a dog without being answerable to the authorities. If you’ve injured or shot a dog in self-defense, consider speaking to a trusted dog bite attorney about your legal options.

Are You Allowed to Shoot a Dog?

There are several instances when a dog might attack and bite you. You can tell that a dog is angry if its teeth are gnarled, its ears are back, and it is growling at you. Most often, people react by running away.

Unfortunately, running away engages the canine instinct and may make it more likely to attack. Similarly, if you attempt to stop the dog with your legs or arms, that too can trigger it to inflict more bites.

The law allows you to shoot a dog if it is threatening your dog or livestock. You’re allowed to defend yourself if the dog is actively harming you or other members of your family. However, you should not continue reiterating after the attack is over.

If you find the dog that attacked you days later and shoot it, you can be charged. In addition, the law doesn’t allow people to shoot a dog after entering their property; it must be presently threatening you or other members of your family.

More importantly, most cruelty laws make it unnecessary to kill or injure an animal without justification. The most evident motive is self-defense or defending another person from harm. However, it doesn’t mean you can shoot a dog because it barks or growls at you.

Similarly, you’re not allowed to shoot a dog that attacked you in the past.

Types of Dog Bite Injuries

A dog attack can cause different types of injuries with varying severity. If you’re a victim of a dog attack and are planning to sue the owner or file a claim, you need to know the kind of dog bite injury to explain your case in court.

Here are the most common dog bite injuries:

Abrasions

An abrasion is a light injury that rubs off your skin. It is also known as a scrape. There’s minimal bleeding when you suffer abrasion; however, you may experience scarring. Most dog abrasions cause pain, skin discoloration, and a pink to clear fluid leaking from the wound.

You can treat a dog abrasion from home. However, you may need medical attention to ensure you don’t have an infection or complications. If you intend to sue the dog owner, the medical records will be instrumental as you file the claim.

Face Injury

Dogs can inflict facial injuries on their victims, particularly children. For instance, there is a dog that attacked a boy, causing lacerations on the bridge of the nose, open globe injury, and fractures on the orbital floor.

Puncture

A puncture wound occurs when a dog pierces and punctures your skin. Although a puncture wound looks small, it tends to be profound. The penetrating nature of the injury increases the risk of infection, highlighting the need for medical attention despite the light breeding.

Puncture wounds are easily infected because germs and dirt are carried deep into the tissues. Sometimes, an infection may occur later, so you should see a doctor if a dog inflicts a puncture wound on you.

Lacerations

A laceration is a deep cut that tears your skin. A laceration goes beyond the epidermis into the muscles, nerves, bones, and blood vessels in your body. A laceration is often irregular and jagged.

A laceration wound doesn’t cause excessive bleeding and can appear to close up. Unfortunately, a laceration wound quickly develops an infection from bacteria and dirt from the dog’s teeth.

The treatment of lacerations involves stopping the bleeding, cleaning, and dressing the wound. However, a deeper cut may necessitate stitches to heal the scarring.

Nerve Damage

Nerve damage is inevitable when a dog bite occurs in an area where the nerve runs just under the skin, such as the neck, thighs, torso, stomach and hands. A typical example of nerve damage is neurapraxia, which occurs when trauma to the nerve causes it to stretch.

Nerve damage can cause temporary loss of sensation and motor functions, lasting for days, weeks, months, or even months. Signs of neuropraxia include numbness, stinging or burning sensation.

You can also suffer axonotmesis, which is a different type of nerve damage. It occurs in dog attack victims whose nerves became severely stretched, though not severed.

Victims of axonotmesis often encounter paralysis. While most victims heal, full recovery takes weeks, months, or years.

Rabies

Rabies is the worst infection you can get from a dog bite. Rabies occurs when a dog bite transmits the deadly virus from its saliva to your skin. You can also get rabies when the infected saliva gets into an open wound or mucous membrane, including the mouth or eyes.

Although rabies causes 59,000 human deaths annually, cases of human rabies are rare, with only 1 to 3 cases reported annually. You’re at risk of getting rabies if you’re traveling or living in developing countries where the risk of rabies is common.

In addition, you’re at high risk if you sustain a dog bite from an unvaccinated dog. People with rabies display symptoms such as confusion, difficulty swallowing, hallucinations, insomnia, and fever.

There’s also the risk of dying due to rabies. The fatal nature of rabies highlights the need to seek medication attention after sustaining a dog bite.

How Can a Dog Bite Attorney Help?

If you don’t defend yourself from an attack, a dog bite can leave you with scars, disfigurement, or long-term complications. You may also endure additional suffering related to mounting medical bills, lost income, and a possible death of your loved ones.

If you shoot or injure a dog in self-defense, a dog bite attorney can prove that you acted to protect your life or that of a loved one.

Here are the key benefits of hiring a dog bite attorney:

Knowledge of Dog Bite Laws

Every state, including New Jersey, has dog bite laws that cover all incidents involving canine attacks. If the dog owner had not restrained their dog, a lawyer can sue the dog owner for negligence and defend based on self-defense.

If the dog has a habit of terrorizing the residents, having already bitten two or three people, the attorney can request the court to authorize the euthanization of the canine.

Compile Evidence

It is possible to shoot a dog that has already injured you, intending to launch another severe attack. An attorney works to protect clients by gathering evidence to prove an injury they suffered before your self-defense act.

Some of the evidence that a lawyer can gather to prove the dog bite includes photos of the injury, eyewitness testimony of people who witnessed the attack, and medical records.

Professional Experience

A dog bite attorney has deep knowledge and years of experience dealing with dog bite attacks. If you’re guilty of using excessive force, the attorney can negotiate a lenient settlement with the dog owner.

You may not get a fair hearing or outcome if you decide against hiring someone with extensive experience with dog bites.

An Attorney Advocates For Your Rights

With an experienced dog bite attorney, you have someone looking after your interest. An attorney will work tirelessly to ensure you’re either compensated or freed from the charges placed on you by the dog owner.

The attorney will also determine the extent of liability for the liable party.

Examples of people who may be liable for the dog attack include:

• A landlord who keeps a dangerous dog
• Parents of a minor if the dog was in the company of someone below 18 years
• A property owner who did not restrain a dangerous dog
• Animal handlers or someone involved in the care and upkeep of animals, including a dog watcher or shelter services

An Attorney Has Access to a Team of Investigators

An attorney has access to private investigators that can prove that the dog owner is negligent. For instance, an attorney can deploy an undercover investigator to take pictures and videos of the dog roaming without supervision.

Get the Representation You Deserve From a Dog Bite Attorney

If a dog attack threatens you or a family member, you can do anything to stop the canine. Irrespective of the circumstances leading to the attack, a dog owner may sue you for hurting their dog.

With that in mind, it is advisable to engage a trusted attorney like The New Jersey Dog Bite Lawyer, who can demonstrate that you acted in self defense.

Contact us online or call us at 1 (866) 259-4377 for a free initial consultation.