The small claims advice is good, but be prepared for the likelihood that you’ll go through the whole process, win, get a judgement, and then never be able to collect on it.
I’m not saying you should find another path, just that the outcome might be revenge in the form of making the person live with the annoyance of an outstanding judgement rather than reimbursement for the vet bill.
Yes, this is a difficult situation for me. My dog can be aggressive, and there have been times where I had to assess my own behavior as a dog owner and what I needed to change to keep both my dog and other people/animals safe from one another.
I would have been devastated if someone were doing to me what I am attempting to do to these owners, and I suspect that I would be reacting very differently if the owners had been generally responsible dog owners and this was a one-off, unfortunate situation.
It’s the fact that we had so many close calls prior to this serious injury that compels me to really take this seriously. They had many opportunities to change the way they were securing their dog within their house, and if they can get away with saying “sorry, but these things happen and I can’t afford your vet bill,” I feel in the midst of an ongoing dangerous situation.
Wow, really? I didn’t even know that was something to watch out for!
Yeah - my understanding of small claims is that it gives you the legal right to collect, but it does not FORCE the loser to pay up. It may give you the ability to do stuff like seize assets, but YOU have to be the aggressor in that.
What Happens If You Win in Small Claims Court and They Don’t Pay? (injuryclaimcoach.com)
I just got a phone call from the vet who classified the injuries as “not serious.” She explained to me that when she spoke to animal services, the officer specifically asked her if the injuries were “life-threatening.” Only life-threatening injuries are brought to trial.
Man, this is some bullshit. I’m sorry you’re having to deal with it.
Wow. And what would have happened if you had not intervened??? LIFE THREATENING.
I wonder if there’s a way to present the options to the dog owners such that paying the $1000 vet bill would be the easiest way out–that paying the $$ would be preferable to facing fines and possibly even the loss of their dog (to euthanasia or surrender to pound).
Perhaps you can threaten them (in a civil manner) with legal action which if they lost they’d be looking at a lot more pain than a mere $1000.
I’m surprised the community has a leash law, and it is apparently unenforced by Animal Control. The owner of the injured dog has to make a complaint before any action can be done?
The dog should have been impounded immediately.
When you file claim with the Small Claims Court, in addition to the vet bills (include those follow up visits with your regular vet) , also request evidence of the attacking dog’s current rabies vaccination and current dog license.
And yes, take some kind of defense spray with you on all future walks. You can buy cans of HALT spray (like the letter carriers use) at any pet store.
~VOW
This is what I’m really struggling with. Imagine if you were the owner of an aggressive dog, presumed that your dog was going to get out and hurt people on occasion, and knew that if your dog hurt someone else animal services would not care unless your dog literally brought the victim to the brink of death.
What would be most likely to influence you to take responsibility for your pet and the damage that the pet had caused?
If someone threatened to take you to court, I think you would twist it in your mind so that this other person was not being understanding and trying to bully you. You would feel animosity towards this person and hope that your dog got out and fucked up these assholes that wanted to take you to the cleaners for your “honest mistake.”
If you said “I’m sorry, I can’t afford it” and went silent when asked when you could provide any sort of financial assistance, if the owner of the other dog decided not to press charges for the leash law in court, you’d think “Aww, these people are nice and understanding, and I’m sure they’d be the same way if this happened again.”
I’m just really struggling in my mind to figure out the balance between making it clear that I’m not backing down and pissing off someone with a lethal weapon who literally stands at their front door banging on the glass every time someone walks by.
Animal services did verify the rabies and license stuff to me. They may not be good for much, but at least they’re good for something.
These people sound scary. Record that behavior with your phone. Date stamped.
Get that bear spray stuff and use it, if really needed.
Walk, only, with a witness.
Expect escalations.
They know they owe you.
Nothing makes people hate you more than knowing they truly owe you money.
Also, thank you to everyone who is offering their support and sympathy. I was on the phone with my boyfriend earlier today, reading these responses to him. DavidNRockies, I struggled to even read your response aloud because I started crying almost immediately. It is such a sad situation. Maddening and scary, sure. But more than anything, seeing my dog in pain, knowing how this could have been preventable with just a little bit of healthy respect for the damage that an aggressive dog can cause, knowing that I was unable to protect her and am still unable to protect her, makes me so sad for my little girl.
I have a wound on my shin that still bleeds when I scrub too hard in the shower. I was on the ground holding this dog’s entire backside because I didn’t realize she was trailing a leash, and when my boyfriend saw the leash and grabbed it, it left a huge, ugly rope burn from where he pulled it out from underneath me. I was in a dress and flip-flops and freaking tackled this dog in an attempt to save my dog, and that wasn’t enough to keep her from splitting my dog’s eyelid open. (My boyfriend said to me afterwards that in the future, we should wear athletic shoes when walking the dog. Which I typically do, but didn’t that time.)
Sorry, I went off on a tangent there. My point is that all of your guys’ words of support, sympathy, and understanding are comforting to me, because when you can’t help but be upset, it’s nice to feel like you’re not alone in your sorrow.
Honestly, I don’t think they are. I’ve probably portrayed them that way in this thread, but until this incident, the owner seemed like a nice guy. We’d smile and wave from a safe distance if we were both out walking our dog at the same time (because both of our dogs were straining at the leash and barking at each other). If his dog was pounding on the door while my dog walked by, he’d typically walk over and shut the door, waving to me as he did.
After my boyfriend chased after them and told them my dog was bleeding from her eye, he said he’d pay the vet bill, and said he’d leave his phone number at our door. He was true to his word, and when I texted him and asked to meet outside our houses to discuss in person, he was very polite and not at all defensive.
My boyfriend had instructed me to point out to this other guy that his dog had gotten out multiple times before, but I told him, "No, let me do the talking. He knows very well that his dog has gotten out before, he knows the dog was off his property, that this attack was unprovoked, and that he’s in the wrong here. We’re not trying to put him on the defensive, we’re trying to inform him of how serious this situation is and get him to cooperate. I informed him that because the situation was so serious, and we were going to continue to be neighbors and we wanted to continue to feel safe in out neighborhood, we did want to report this to animal services. The owner said he understood, and acknowledged (with absolutely no prompting on our part) that my actions were understandable, particularly considering that he knew his dog had gotten out before.
And lastly, he and his wife recently had a baby. When he says that he can’t afford it, I truly believe that. I would like to give him the grace to take a few months to come up with the money if he can. I would like to extend these courtesies to him because I would want the same courtesy extended to me if I were in his situation. Like I said, my dog can be aggressive, and while she’s never mauled anyone’s face and caused injuries as significant as his dog did – maybe his dog has never done this before, either. Maybe he didn’t realize how dangerous his dog was until this happened.
I am freaking out about this situation, but I don’t want my fears to cloud my sense of kindness and humanity.
There are ways to collect if you win. You can attach wages if you know where he works.
There is no reason why you can’t express all of what you just said above in your demand letter. A demand letter can be very polite. You can express your willingness to work with them, to give them a grace period and all of that. This’ll also be looked on favorably by most judges when and if you have to go to court.
I’ve written a lot of demand letters. I always started very polite and kind. I begged them to please not force my hand. I only went to court if I had to.
But sometimes it’s just not worth the hassle. Only you can decide that.
For the record, this is the sort of information that is often easily accessible via social media. If you don’t already know, it might be worthwhile to find them on a community website, Facebook or elsewhere and have all your ducks in a row, especially if you want to make a very polite, but very detailed letter per @not_what_you_d_expect’s fair advice above.
Get it before they think to hide it.
Good news. After six days of silence from the owner, I woke up this morning to discover that he had transferred $1,000 to my Venmo account. What a wonderful way to wake up. I was really hoping for some indication of accountability that wasn’t forced or court-mandated, and this was it.
I take my dog to the vet this evening to get the sutures removed from her face. Once I get the bill for that amount, I plan to suggest to the owner that we split up the remaining amount into three equal payments paid out over the next three months so I can get all the money by the end of the calendar year. Since they have already agreed (in writing via text) to pay the remaining amount over the next few months, I have high hopes that this can be resolved congenially.
Justice for your doggo!
Here’s hoping that having to spend this sort of money makes the owner reconsider their discipline issues, and retrain the dog, or at least keep it close to home. Others will benefit as well!
Yes, exactly. While I’m certainly not happy this happened, in a twisted way, this probably does make life safer for me, my dog, and the entire neighborhood going forward. Close calls and minor scraps don’t tend to motivate people to change their behavior in nearly the way that shelling out a thousand dollars does.
And I certainly have sympathy for them. It is awful to look at my dog and see her squinting her eye back at me because there are stitches in her eyelid. But truthfully, I think it would be more awful still if I had to look at my dog and know that she was vicious enough to swiftly destroy another dog’s face as soon as she was given the chance.
This is very true. The other dog’s owner has now paid a heavy price for their carelessness. Reasonably, this should be a wakeup call to encourage more care.