Can you help me my sisters dog bit her neighbour

thesim

I believe the courts have the choice if a dog is put down. However dont quote on that.

foreign_correspondent

I think if its on your property it's a different case - I will try and find a link and post later, but my computer is being dodgy - trying to sort it... :-(

ETA - looks less than clear cut - some handy ideas on here http://www.dogpages.org.uk/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t180576.html

Would it be worth trying to make amends with the neighbour? Maybe offering to muzzle the dog when she is on the garden would be useful? And as I said she needs to remain calm so she is as blameless as possible - if she starts screaming abuse back it will muddy the waters!

Hope it all goes well.

Alpha47

Hello

Many thanks for all your replies we are really grateful. They arrested my sister under the dangerous dogs act Section 3 1991, dangerously out of control dog today.

she is somewhat stunned because they are telling quite a story of the dog jumping onto the wall ( 5 inches and 5/8th wide). Saying the postman would not deliver letters, although my sister asked the neighbour to take her mail while she was visiting my mother when she was sick.

Makes you loose faith in people. I know there are some good people out there.

It turns out she has insurance, I told her to see if she is covered if they sue, as it sounds to me that this could be what this is about. The house is going on the market again and a fence is goin g up to 6feet, and the dog has a muzzle.

Alpha

foreign_correspondent

thanks for the update ...so, have they said what they will be doing about the dog? It sounds unlikey that en alderly dog could jump and balance on the top of a wall that high...

I hope her insurance will cover a good solicitor if she is covered she could hopefully look at setting on someone with some knowledge of that specific area of the law.

I know Dr Roger Mugford has extensive experience in DDA prosecutions, maybe he could advise - if it were my dog, I would email him and ask for his advice ... http://www.companyofanimals.co.uk/legals.php

good luck

Alpha47

Thanks for that, I will email him and see what he says, she is in court on 20th May, the act seems to apply to public places and not gardens..

It sounds to me like the neighbours also have a dog, a puppy, she thinks the puppy might have bitten the young lady. No way to prove it though. Her dog according to my sister cannot get its toy off the wall when they put it up. It does seem unlikely her collie could jump that far and then balance on the wall.

orlao

I've had a neighbour threaten something similar (never got as far as the police though) His 30 something son used to tease the dog over the fence when he was a puppy and made the mistake of leaning right over the fence when the dog was bigger and able to jump. My fence is 6 ft my side but their garden has a high decked area which makes it less than 4ft their side and the son claimed that the dog bit him. I was home at the time and heard the noise so rushed out. The neighbours were screaming and shouting that they'd have the dog PTS etc but shut up (eventually:rolleyes:) when I asked to see the injury as there wasn't one. Anyway, after that I checked with the dog warden about what would happen if they did get bitten if they did something stupid again and was told that as long the dogs were on my property it was unlikely I would be prosecuted but it was a possibility....but if I did end up in court that it would be well worth fighting it as it's a grey area legally.

Presumably photo's were taken of the bite? Would the marks left by puppy teeth be very different than bite marks of an adult dog? Just a thought!

Something to be aware of....in these type of cases they often remove the dog to kennels before the court case proper so if your sister doesn't want that to happen she probably needs to think about legal advice to avoid it plus already having secured her garden so that the neighbours cannot get at the dog.....that type of thing.

foreign_correspondent

It also seems that having a sign up can be a good idea - apparently 'beware of the dog' is not a good idea, as it infers your dog is guarding, but 'warning, dogs loose' is ok..? I will see if I can find any info about this as it may be useful for anyone who lets their dog onto their garden!

Paradigm

Section 3 of the dangerous dogs act does indeed refer to public places.

From the info given here this doesn't seem to apply. I would have thought that to prosecute under section 3 they would have to allege/prove the dog escaped from it's own garden.

Was your sister actually arrested? Or invited for an interview?

Mojisola

Has the dog been to the vets regularly? If so, they may be able to tell the police that the dog is unlikely to be able to jump that far.

Also, as arlao says, are there photos of the bites? It should be clear from the bites which dog did it.

orlao

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

It also seems that having a sign up can be a good idea - apparently 'beware of the dog' is not a good idea, as it infers your dog is guarding, but 'warning, dogs loose' is ok..? I will see if I can find any info about this as it may be useful for anyone who lets their dog onto their garden!

NFU (house insurance) told me that I couldn't have a "beware" sign as that is admitting that your dog MAY be dangerous, however "caution" signs are both legal and advisable if your dog is allowed on your property unsupervised. To have a "guard dog" sign, the dog must be licensed as a GD and have a handler present.....however, that rule seems to be universaly ignored


I have a "Caution, loose dogs" sign on my locked back gate to stop delivery people trying to put parcels behind the gate......