Dog Bite Incidents 

In the event that you are attacked by a dog  

There are a few important things you must take action on right away.

Report the Incident to the Local Animal Control Agency and the Police:

Attacks involving dogs can happen suddenly with little or no warning and can be terrifying when they do happen. When such an attack is imminent, if possible, seek a safe place indoors or retreat to higher grounds and avoid the attacking animal until help arrived or the animal leaves the area.

If you are bitten or scratched, you will need to report the incident to the police as well as the local animal control agency. Both will want to know the location of the incident including the address if it occurred on someone’s property or the nearest cross streets. It is equally important that you provide a good description of the dog. The description will include as best as you can the breed of the dog, it’s color, distinctive markings, and the approximate size of the animal.

If the animal owner is present, you need to request the identification number or the so called dog tag for the animal. Having this ID number will allow the animal control authorities to swiftly check as to whether the animal has up to date rabies vaccinations or has had any other health problems that may be important for your treating physicians to know.  In some cases, animal control may need to quarantine the animal to check for rabies and other health issues and usually the person who has been bitten will be notified in the event of any relevant test results pertaining to the subject animal.

While the chances of contracting rabies from a dog bite is very low, there is still a relatively high risk of infection from any animal bite and therefore getting prompt medical care for the wound is an important and prudent step to prevent the spread of infection from a dog bite wound.

If it is apparent that the dog owner lives in a home or in some cases rents, you will need to ask the dog owner to provide the name and policy number of their homeowner’s insurance as a majority of homeowner’s insurance policies provide liability coverage for dog bites.