It seems there is a week commemorating everything. I didn’t know, though, that the federal Center for Disease Control (CDC), has a “National Dog Bite Prevention Week.” According to the CDC statistics, dog bites are serious business. The agency did a comprehensive study during the 19 year period 1979 through 1998, and concluded that an astounding 300 Americans died from dog bite attacks. Every year, approximately 800,000 Americans seek medical attention for dog bites, and of those, 386,000 need emergency attention. Fortunately, most dog bites involve a single dog, not a pack. Of the fatal dog bite attacks, more than half were caused by pit-bulls, pit-bull type breeds, and rottweilers. Young children are at the greatest risk of being killed or seriously injured in a dog attack. Children may find even a dangerous dog to be interesting or cute, and may not know how to approach it, back off if it threatens, or how to avoid actions that the dog may perceive as threatening.

The CDC cautions people to be sure to consider whether a dog one purchases is appropriate for the household and its members. It’s always sad to hear the owner of a pit-bull or other “more vicious” breed, that kills or maims a child, say that the dog never showed any signs of being dangerous. It only takes once, and as the CDC statistics show, while any dog can bite, some breeds are far more dangerous than others. The CDC also points out that spaying or neutering a dog can reduce aggressive tendencies. It gives the common sense advice of not leaving an infant or toddler alone with any dog, and it recommends avoiding aggressive games such as wrestling with the household dog. Other advice on dog safety can be found on the CDC web site.

If you are the victim of a dog bite, what are your legal rights? They are substantial. Massachusetts has a strict liability dog bite law. Strict liability in the context of the dog bite statute, means that if you are bitten by a dog, the owner or keeper is liable to you for your injuries, whether or not the owner was negligent, and whether or not the dog had dangerous propensities that the owner knew or should have known about. In other words, the owner is as liable for an attack by a previously docile cocker spaniel, as he would be for an attack by a vicious pit-bull. The dog owner can defeat liability only by showing that the bitten person was either trespassing or committing another tort, or teasing, tormenting, or abusing the dog. If the dog bites a child under 7 years of age, it is presumed that the child was not trespassing or bothering the dog, and the dog owner must prove affirmatively that the child was doing so.

As a result of the strict liability Massachusetts dog bite law, which means that negligence does not have to be proved in a dog bite case, the bitten person’s lawyer needs to asses the following questions: (1) can ownership or control of the dog be proven; (2) will the plaintiff be able to defeat any attempt by the dog owner to claim the plaintiff was trespassing or teasing or abusing the dog; (3) what are the damages; and (4) as a pragmatic matter – is the dog owner either a property owner with significant assets or insured by a homeowners or other policy that covers him for dog bites? A dog attack can be terrifying and cause long-lasting psychological as well as physical trauma, especially to a young child. Emotional suffering, in addition to physical injury, is an element of damages in a dog bite case. If the answers to those elements are satisfactory from the plaintiff’s perspective, then a serious dog bit case may be worth pursuing.