There have been a couple of widely-reported cases of horrific dog maulings where the dogs killed either their owner or handler. The most grisly attack culminated in the dogs feeding off of their owner’s remains. Law enforcement assured the public that they were euthanized.
In the above case that took place in a southern state, police said that the dogs belong to their 22-year-old owner, but she had begun neglecting them by rarely being home to care for them. Isolated and chained outside in the elements, the dogs atavistically attacked.
In the second fatal dog bite case that recently occurred in the Southwest, the woman who was killed was not the dog’s owner. Rather, she was a 69-year-old volunteer with an animal advocacy group, Akita Advocates.
The dog that mortally injured the volunteer was an Akita from the group. Their organization was renting a section of the property owned by the Canine Country Club & Feline Inn, a pet-sitting service. The woman was found in the exercise yard and was immediately transported to a local hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.
Dogs may be man’s best friend, but they can also be unpredictable and dangerous. If you have been bitten by a dog owned by someone else, or if you were bitten by a stray in a store or location to which no dogs should have had unsupervised access to people, you might be able to file a claim against any of the liable parties.
Some dog bites are minor and require little to no treatment. However, some dog bites can be life-threatening and require multiple reconstructive surgeries and other procedures. Learning about your legal rights in such a situation can be empowering.
Source: FOX News, “Volunteer at Arizona kennel killed in dog attack,” Elizabeth Zwirz, Dec. 21, 2017
