Chicago Accident Lawyer Blog

Let’s continue with last weeks dog related theme seeing how there has been alot of dog and animal related discussions in the news lately. In the last post I explained a little about Chicago’s leash ordinance,which again, basically means dogs must be kept on a leash or confined when outside their owners property and in the public sphere. Today let’s focus on the dangerous animal ordinance and what defines a dangerous animal.

According to the Chicago Red Eye, Chicago defines a dangerous animal as “any animal that bites, inflicts injury on, kills, or otherwise attacks a human being or domestic animal without provocation on any public or private property.” This definition includes animals that are trained to chase and have an attitude of attack, such as dogs trained for fighting. This ordinance also covers dogs used in the commercial venture to guard public or private property. However, Chicago does not include govermental or law enforcement canines in this definition.

When it comes down to it, an animal control officer has the last word as to whether or not an animal is deemed too dangerous. Penalites depend on the animals offense. The city can order the animal to be destroyed humanly if it hurts a human severly. On other less severe occasions, the city can order the owner to obtain a dangerous animal license, have a microchip installed, have it sterilized, secure liability insurance, have the animal muzzled, have the animal spayed or neutered, and have owner put up appropriate signage on their property. If the owner violates these rules, they can be fined up to 1000 dollars, and have their animal taken away from them and impounded.

A horrible start to the New Year for a 62-year old Chicago jogger left in critical condition after being attacked by two pit bulls while jogging along the lakefront near Rainbow Bridge Park early Monday morning. According to the Chicago Tribune, the dogs bit the jogger all over his entire body, including his face, arms, and especially legs. An eye witness, Stanley Lee, overheard the joggers screams for help from his nearby apartment and attempted to stop the dogs. He hit them repeatedly with a baseball bat, but the dogs would not let go. Their jaws were locked in place. Luckily the police arrived soon after and shot both dogs.

Authorities have stated that the dogs’ owner has been ticketed for failing to restrain them and for not having city dog licenses. He could be facing fines of up to $2000 dollars. In addition, under the Illinois Animal Control Act, dog owners are strictly liable for injuries caused by their animals. The owner claims the dogs got loose when somebody left his gate open. The owner should have been responsible enough to ensure that this gate was closed considering such large dogs where being housed. While the dogs did have collars on, they did not have identification tags on the collars, or microchips embedded underneath their skin. The owner came forward as the owner of the dogs in good faith.

The dogs were both unneutered adult males, weighing in at over 70lbs each, pretty large considering the average pit bull weighs between 55-65 lbs. It should be noted that any dog can be dangerous, not just pit bulls. They tend to have a bad reputation, but in reality, any dog unproperly socialized can be dangerous.

Pit bull terriers and rottweilers dog breeds account for 71% of fatal dog attacks according to a study conducted by DogsBite.org during a 6-year period from 2005 to 2010. Chicago dog bite attorneys, Zneimer & Zneimer have noted that the majority of the dog bite cases that they handle involve pit bulls. DogBites.org notes that pit bulls are especially dangerous because bit bulls will often not communicate their intention to attack prior to an attack to achieve a surprise attack. They also use a bite technique that is especially deadly which is to lock on to the victim with its powerful jaw and then shake the victim.

DogBites.org notes that one common scenario for fatal dog attacks is when a child is visiting in the home of a pit bull or rottweiler owner for the first time. The new situation of a visiting child in the house have shown to trigger attacks by dangerous breeds when the same dog has not shown any dangerous tendencies before the attack.