Most of you might know that the dog owner is entitled to provide financial compensation to the dog bite victim in California State. However, what if a dog bites another dog? Who will be held liable in this case? Note that California dog bite law does not apply to this kind of situations. However, the owner of the victim canine will be eligible to claim damages in most cases.
California Dog Bite Statute
According to California dog bite law, ‘the owner of a dog is liable for the damages suffered by any person who is bitten by the dog in a public place or lawfully in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner’s knowledge of such viciousness’.
Clearly, the California dog bite statute is only applicable to human victims, as mentioned earlier. This does not mean that any dog can attack other canines. On a related note, there are more than 1.5 million dogs in California and such negligence can cause huge chaos in the city for sure.
In case a dog is bitten by another canine, the caretaker or owner of the latter will be held liable for the actions of his/her pet. In other words, even if there is no explicit statute in California when it comes to a dog biting another dog, the owners of the dogs are expected to provide fair monetary compensation to the victim canine’s owner. The recoverable damages in such cases mainly include the vet bills.
In case a guide dog was attacked by another dog, the compensation amount will be higher since it tends to affect the lifestyle of the victim’s owner as well. However, you can compensate the victim canine only if the carelessness of the other dog’s owner leads to the incident. Note that the strict liability law cannot be applied in this case.
As a result, unlike the California dog bite statute for human victims, you will have to prove the negligence of the dog owner in this case in court to obtain compensation. On top of that, you will have to prove that the negligence of the defendant dog’s owner led to the dog bite incident. This explains the necessity of hiring the services of a credible dog bite attorney. In case a dog is killed because of the dog bite, the owner of the killer canine is expected to pay the cost of the deceased dog along with the vet bills as compensation.