In California, dog owners are responsible for the injuries caused when their dog bites someone. They have to pay compensations for the damages caused by their dogs. But who will be responsible for paying vet bills when the victim of the dog bite is another dog? Although California’s dog bite law did not cover this issue, dog owners have the liability to recover damages and pay compensations for the dog bite.
Pets are classified as properties as per the California law. Therefore, the negligence and property law is considered for calculating the amount to be paid by the dog owner to the vet. According to the law, a dog owner has to make compensations only when injuries are caused. Since the case when a dog bites another dog does not apply to strict liability, the victim’s owner has to prove the negligence of aggressor’s owner to get compensation. A good dog bite attorney will know about these claims to file for getting maximum compensation.
How Compensation Value is Determined for Pet Injury?
Many families consider dogs as their family members rather than a pet. This consideration is the main reason behind the increase in number of dog – friendly restaurants, parks, stores, shopping malls in California. An injury or loss of pet will surely hurt the feelings of the owner since it will cause an unrecoverable loss of companionship, love and security.
Since California law considers pets as properties, property owners can recover the value of their damaged property caused by the negligence of another person. It is only possible after proving negligence of liable person.
How the value of a pet injury can be determined? Does a stray dog which is rescued and cared by a pet lover can be compensated? Does the market value of the pet affect the compensatory value? Compensatory value to be paid by a dog owner for the pet injury is determined from the vet bills paid during the treatment of the injured dog. It does not depend on the market value of a dog. A stray dog which is rescued and cared by a pet lover will not have any market value. But they are also eligible to get compensation despite of their market value.
Get Legal Help
If your dog has been bitten by another dog or if your dog has attacked any other dog, then get legal help as soon as possible. A good dog bite attorney can surely help you in dealing the case.
