Animal Attack Lawyers – Personal Injury Law

Over a quarter of a million dog bites, victims need to go to the emergency room each year at the cost of over one billion dollars. This is just a fraction of the people who are bitten by dogs, which the Centers for Disease Control placed at about four and a half million victims. Between 30 to 35 people are bitten so severely that they die of their wounds.

A dog owner is responsible if the dog bites and injures another human being. The owner of any dog that bites any person while such person is on or in a public place, or lawfully on or in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, is liable for damages suffered by persons bitten, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owners’ knowledge of such viciousness. One caveat is that the liability of the dog owner can be reduced if the victim’s negligence was a contributing factor to their being bitten, such as if they provoked the dog or were on the homeowner’s property without any reason for being there. A child who’s under six years old, however, is considered incapable of committing the sort of negligence that would lead the dog to bite them. There might be no liability if the victim is over six, if the biting happened on the owner’s property and there was a sign placed in plain sight upon which was written “Bad Dog,” or “Beware of Dog.”

What To Do If Bitten
A dog bite can be a puncture wound from the animal’s fangs or a laceration in the skin. Sometimes the teeth don’t break the skin and just cause a bruise. Dogs with especially powerful jaws can leave crush wounds, especially in children. A bite that’s broken the skin needs to be treated. If it’s possible, the person who treats the wound should wear latex gloves or try to find a place where they can thoroughly wash their hands both before and after administering first aid. Click here

A wound that’s not bleeding profusely should be washed out with mild soap and running water. Then, it should be treated with a topical antibiotic and covered with a clean bandage. If the person’s been bitten on their hand, they should see a doctor right away. The person should also be taken to an emergency room if they’re bleeding severely and first aid measures don’t help. They should also see a doctor if they haven’t had a tetanus shot in five years.

If the wound is bleeding profusely a clean cloth should be pressed against and the area should be elevated. The wound should be watched for the next day or two to make sure that it doesn’t become infected. This would present as swelling, redness, and pain in the area of the bite.

Compensation
Despite the frequency of dog bites only about 15,000 to 16,000 victims are compensated. The average amount of compensation is a little less than $22,000 per victim and it’s usually paid out of homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. More here