Can you help me my sisters dog bit her neighbour

Alpha47

My sister lives alone in Wales with her 9 year old dog Peggy . Peggy was out in her walled garden, the wall is at about 3 feet high and Peggy is no spring chicken. Somehow the next door neighbour managed to get the dog to bite her, although I think she must have provoked the dog. Nobody saw what happened just a lot of screaming when the dog bit the lady, she did go to hospital and reported it to the police.

The neighbours have been screaming abuse at my sister, and the police are going to arrest her tomorrow to interview her I do not know why they are arresting her.

She is really worried, we have just lost my mum, and this is a bad time for us all. My sister wants to move but cannot sell her house.

Anybody know what the rules are that apply to your dog in your garden, behind its own wall? I do not think the dog has the best nature, but my sister does not let her out unless she is with her and has had no other problems, she is a nervous dog and I think she can be snappy.

Any advise please.

UKTigerlily

Alpha47 wrote: »

My sister lives alone in Wales with her 9 year old dog Peggy . Peggy was out in her walled garden, the wall is at about 3 feet high and Peggy is no spring chicken. Somehow the next door neighbour managed to get the dog to bite her, although I think she must have provoked the dog. Nobody saw what happened just a lot of screaming when the dog bit the lady, she did go to hospital and reported it to the police.

The neighbours have been screaming abuse at my sister, and the police are going to arrest her tomorrow to interview her I do not know why they are arresting her.

She is really worried, we have just lost my mum, and this is a bad time for us all. My sister wants to move but cannot sell her house.

Anybody know what the rules are that apply to your dog in your garden, behind its own wall? I do not think the dog has the best nature, but my sister does not let her out unless she is with her and has had no other problems, she is a nervous dog and I think she can be snappy.

Any advise please.

Sorry to hear about your Mum passing away, it must be very difficult right now. *If* the Dog was in it's own garden, afaik, the Police/DW can't press charges & may just warn her, but I might be wrong. I *think* the DDA only applies to Dogs in public places.

Your Sister needs to make sure she's supervising the Dog, I know you say that she's never let out unless your Sister is with her, but that's no good as this incident proves, she needs to have her eye & prefgerably a lead on her at all times.

If the neighbour did provoke the Dog I have no sympathy for the neighbour, but could it be something as innocent as a belonging fell over the wall & as it's such a small wall the neighbour reached in to get it back not knowing the Dog would be aggressive?

Has your Sister apologised to the neighbour & been to see how her hand is? If Insured she may not want to in case it affects any claim if the neighbour sues, but if not Insured it couldn't hurt to go & apologise & find out what happened so she can take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Overall though, the neighbour may have deliberately provoked the Dog but she may not have done & it sounds like it can't be proven. IMO the fencing is far too low for an aggressive Dog, old or not. Maybe the neighbour was shocked & when she calms down will see things differently, none of us were there though so we can only guess.

foreign_correspondent

I think in general, if the dog is on your garden, the police are likely to not want to intervene, as presumably the dog was just guarding her home - but, as tigerlily points out, it is hard to say without knowing what happened... and I guess there are no witnesses other than the neighbour?

All I can say, is advise your sister to be as helpful, calm and reasonable as she can with the police, in cases like this just being sensible and reasonable can be really important - she musnt rise to the neighbours screaming tactics. Your sister must stay calm, but let the police know if the neighbours are threatening and abusive. Let them discredit themselves.

Alpha47

Thanks to Tigerlily and foreign correspondent for the quick response.
From what I can gather the police are coming to take her for an interview tomorrow. The neighbour that was bitten was 17 years old her friend was with her. Nobody else knows what happened, my sister says the dog would have needed to jump 52 inches to reach her and they have tried to get her to pick her toy off the wall and she cannot do it. It would be a shame to put the dog down if it was not the dogs fault.
I have told her to stay calm and explain what happened as best she can, I think they might have been teasing the dog.
Thanks

wolfehouse

sorry to hear about your situation.
when i was small a neighbour boy came uninvited into our yard
and our dog bit him (also probably provoked).
the neighbour sued and was given damages and the dog was destroyed.
not what you want to hear, and it was another place and time.
you can tell i'm not that sympathetic to the neighbour, but these things aren't always logical and i do hope things work out better than that for you.

foreign_correspondent

the dog would have needed to jump 52 inches to reach her and they have tried to get her to pick her toy off the wall and she cannot do it

That suggests they put a body part over the wall (arm presumably?) to get bitten - I think in that case, legally, they do not really have a leg to stand on, as the dog was just guarding its home.

MrsTinks

Problem would be proving that they provoked the dog... I don't think it matters much that the dog was on it's own property but I could be (and hope I am!) wrong. Ultimately it has bitten a person and it's her word against the dog sadly. I guess the argument could be that someone with legal business to approach the house like a postman or delivery driver could have been bitten - theoretically. Unless someone saw them teasing the dog then it will probably be treated as unprovoked dog attack...

The police will treat this as a serious incident, as they should - until they have investigated they have no way of knowing if there is a history of the dog being out of control/aggressive etc or what exactly happened.

marshallka

Alpha47 wrote: »

My sister lives alone in Wales with her 9 year old dog Peggy . Peggy was out in her walled garden, the wall is at about 3 feet high and Peggy is no spring chicken. Somehow the next door neighbour managed to get the dog to bite her, although I think she must have provoked the dog. Nobody saw what happened just a lot of screaming when the dog bit the lady, she did go to hospital and reported it to the police.

The neighbours have been screaming abuse at my sister, and the police are going to arrest her tomorrow to interview her I do not know why they are arresting her.

She is really worried, we have just lost my mum, and this is a bad time for us all. My sister wants to move but cannot sell her house.

Anybody know what the rules are that apply to your dog in your garden, behind its own wall? I do not think the dog has the best nature, but my sister does not let her out unless she is with her and has had no other problems, she is a nervous dog and I think she can be snappy.

Any advise please.

Sometimes with house insurance etc you get free legal advice and it may be worth looking into this.

Alpha47

Thanks for all the replies, I am sorry it happened to you Wolfehouse. I am passing replies on to my sister, she has got herself a solicitor and it sounds like she needs one. She did not have house insurance, she has very little money and few possessions.
Will post when I find out what the police do, I hope they do not put the dog down. It would not have bitten the postman or delivery driver it was in the back garden, she needs a much higher fence.

marshallka

Alpha47 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies, I am sorry it happened to you Wolfehouse. I am passing replies on to my sister, she has got herself a solicitor and it sounds like she needs one. She did not have house insurance, she has very little money and few possessions.
Will post when I find out what the police do, I hope they do not put the dog down. It would not have bitten the postman or delivery driver it was in the back garden, she needs a much higher fence.

Keep us posted and hope things go the right way.

WolfSong2000

Usually the rule of thumb (as far as I'm aware) is that if a dog bites someone and that person presses charges, the dog can be destroyed...wish I knew if this was the case on private property, but as you are held directly responsible for the actions of your dog, could the police theoretically view it as a similar crime to you having assaulted the person? Maybe I'm talking out of my backside here, but may be worth looking into.

I suspect, though, that if they wanted to get the dog destroyed, they'd have to prove that it was "dangerous" and likely to attack again...although, the person attacked was under 18...ugh, I dunno...I'd tread very carefully, though, and get legal advice!