Owners And Local Authorities Are Responsible For Repeated Attacks By Aggressive Dogs

All 50 states allow people injured by other people’s pet dogs to file personal injury claims against the owner of the dog, but the conditions for filing a lawsuit.  Some states are “no bite” states, where the owner is liable even if the plaintiff’s injury represents the first time the dog ever bit a human, while others are “one bite” states, where the owner is only liable if the dog has a history of biting humans, at least once.  Two recent South Carolina cases involve horrific attacks, where counting the bites seems almost laughable.  Multiple dogs attacked people and inflicted severe injuries, even after local residents had been complaining about the dogs’ aggressive behavior for a long time.  In other words, these attacks were as costly as they were preventable.  If you have suffered injuries in an attack by dogs known to be a nuisance, contact a Columbia premises liability lawyer.

Pack of Dogs in Barnwell County Attack Two Women

A property owner in Barnwell County received numerous complaints from neighbors for letting his 19 dogs run loose on his property; community residents had called police about the dogs numerous times.  One day in March 2024, Rose Hartzog was walking past the dogs’ yard, when several dogs attacked her.  Jennie Brown, the next-door neighbor of the owner of the dogs, heard Hartzog yelling for help and came out of her house.  As she tried to shoo the dogs away from Hartzog, some of them attacked her.

The injured women have filed a lawsuit against the city of Barnwell and its police department.  They claim that the police ignored the dog owners’ constant violations of local ordinances about fences on properties where dogs could roam without leashes.

Abbeville County Woman Suffers Catastrophic Injuries in Dog Attack

A similar attack, one where the injuries were even worse, occurred in 2022 in Abbeville County.  Kyleen Waltman was walking on Ball Road when a pack of dogs attacked her and inflicted life-threatening injuries.  She remained hospitalized for months, and doctors amputated both of her arms.

As with the Barnwell County case, the warning signs were there before the dogs attacked Waltman.  The same pack of dogs, all of which belonged to the same owner, had bitten a man in December 2021 and injured him.  Waltman alleges in her lawsuit that the response of local law enforcement after the December 2021 attack was inadequate.  She claims that, if officials had done their due diligence and found out how dangerous the dogs were, they would have ordered the owner to remove them or at least done a better job of confining them.  News sources did not report the amount she is seeking in damages.

Let Us Help You Today

The personal injury lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you pursue a complaint related to an attack by a domestic animal known to be aggressive toward humans.  Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.

Sources:

wrdw.com/2024/05/01/woman-injured-barnwell-dog-attack-files-negligence-lawsuit/

wyff4.com/article/lawsuit-south-carolina-woman-loses-arms-dog-attack/60142482