You may be surprised to find out that nearly five million people are bitten by dogs in the United States each year. Only about 1/5 of those people go on to seek medical treatment, and only a small number of those people have wounds that prove fatal. However, dog bits are a threat to public safety and help in Illinois, which has strict rules and laws in place to force owners to regulate the behavior of their dogs. If you have been bitten by a dog, you may want to get in contact with a Barrington dog bite lawyer.
What is a Dangerous Dog?
There are specific actions that lead a dog to be considered dangerous. These include any behavior that threatens people or animals with death or risk of an injury. Here are a few of the behaviors that can lead to this designation.
- Causes injury to a human
- Kills a human
- Engages in fighting with animals
- Bites, attacks, or endangers a human
- Damages private or public property
- Bites or otherwise injures a human without provocation
- Injures of kills another domestic animal
- Attacks someone severely enough that they believe the dog showed a serious threat to that person, even if there is no actual injury
Dangerous vs. Vicious
Dangerous and vicious are two very specific terms when talking about dogs. The Animal Control Act has built these classifications and there are laws based on these two terms. Let’s look at what the difference is.
A dangerous dog is a dog that may injure of bite a human or animal in the future. However, a vicious dog is one that has caused a major injury or bite to a human. So, a dog that barks at visitors isn’t dangerous but one that jumps on someone in the street is. As far as being vicious, this relates only to dogs who have attacked and injured a human at some point in the past.
If you are someone who has suffered injury from a canine, a Barrington dog bite lawyer can assist you. Like us on Robert T. Edens, P.C., we can provide the support you need. One of our specializations is dog bite injuries and our staff has copious amounts of experience in that area.
