You were taking a walk past someone’s yard when suddenly a dog barreled towards you and latched onto your arm. Now you are waiting in a hospital lobby for a doctor to stitch you up. This is an all too common scenario with nearly 4.5 million dog bites occurring a year.
You may be wondering what you can do to prevent that dog from biting others:
Report the dog bite to police and animal control
After receiving medical treatment, the first thing you may want to do is report the dog to the police and animal control. Report any strange behaviors the dog may have shown. Your main concern at this point is ensuring the dog has all its vaccines so that you don’t have to worry about any harmful diseases.
The police will build a report and hopefully identify and contact the owners. Animal control will help capture the dog and identify any future dangers it could cause. The breed of the dog will determine how animal control deals with the dog after its capture. Animal control will also know if the dog has previously been reported. You can save the police and animal control time if you were able to get any info about the owner and their dog: the owner’s name, their phone number, their address or their dog’s description.
If you are a victim of a dog bite and facing serious injuries then you may need to think about your legal rights and build a case against the owner. You may be entitled to compensation if this bite has limited the way you work and live.
