STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — An alleged canine chunk incident in November has left a girl with bodily accidents and no avenue to show the proprietor’s accountability.
Maryam Khalil, a 20-year-old scholar athlete at Wagner College, selected the morning of Nov. 25 to take her 5-month-old German shepherd, Zara, for a visit to the often-frequented Silver Lake Park Dog Run.
According to Khalil, Zara was mingling and enjoying with different dogs when one other canine, a labrador retriever, was heard growling from outdoors the fenced-in canine run. At this time, Khalil says, one other involved canine proprietor within the park started to level out the principles, which state that aggressive dogs usually are not permitted.
A variety of indicators on the canine run lay out a plethora of guidelines to abide by, together with: “No aggressive dogs.” And, “dog owners are responsible for their dogs’ actions.”
Khalil says the proprietor of the lab made his method into the canine run anyway, releasing the canine from his leash. According to Khalil, the person’s canine charged Zara, ramming into the puppy and biting her. Khalil tried to seize her puppy, an motion she says resulted in two bites from the lab that ripped open her hand.
“My puppy was being demolished, completely demolished,” Khalil stated. “Nothing happened to her, thank God.” She didn’t see thee proprietor wherever for a couple of minutes whereas this was taking place, she stated.
Witness Sandy Kennedy, a resident of Stapleton and a daily on the Silver Lake Dog Run, remembers the day’s occasions.
“The dog made a beeline for this girl’s dog, a beeline,’’ Kennedy said. ”It was up towards the fence, she (Khalil) was making an attempt to interrupt them up, I used to be making an attempt to seize my canine.”
Of the canine’s proprietor, Kennedy stated: “He didn’t even get up off the bench to stop his dog from fighting. He sent his kids over.”
Dog run visitors tended to Khalil, who was reportedly bleeding profusely and felt faint. Mark Gales, a West Brighton resident, and one other lady, had been there on the time. After checking on Khalil, Gales remembers asking questions in regards to the canine. The proprietor refused to just accept duty for the canine’s actions, Gales stated.
“There was no form of accountability on his part,” he stated.
Khalil contacted her mother and father as different canine run visitors known as the police.
She stated she, herself, made an try to get data from the canine proprietor, however he continued to disclaim duty and left with out offering any.
Police reportedly by no means arrived, Khalil says, and she or he needed to make a visit to the emergency room for remedy, leading to a sew, a rabies shot and a tetanus shot. Additionally, Khalil stated she nonetheless wants two extra rounds of rabies photographs.
In the hopes of motion being taken, Khalil says she stopped on the NYPD’s a hundred and twentieth Precinct, in St. George, which finally proved fruitless. Khalil was informed to file an animal management report and was supplied data on a possible plan of action.
“Because he’s technically not a criminal, it would be more of a civil lawsuit type of thing,” Khalil stated.
She added that to take any additional motion, she’d want to amass contact data.
Now, Khalil is apprehensive about insurance coverage prices.
“He didn’t even say ‘I’m sorry,’ nothing.’’ she said. “He denied the whole situation.”
When contacted by the Staten Island Advance / SILive.com, the NYC Health Department didn’t touch upon whether or not or not a canine proprietor his required to stay on the scene after a chunk. However, a consultant did present a web page of sources on how to respond to and report a dog bite.
DOG BITE LAW
So what’s to return of a state of affairs like this?
In reality, “there’s no real recourse,” stated Jon Ryan D’Agostino, an affiliate with the legislation agency of D’Agostino & Associates.
In the state of New York, dogs essentially get one “free” bitehe stated. The sufferer of the chunk is then left with the burden of proving {that a} canine had vicious propensity, he stated.
“If the dog doesn’t have a record, meaning that the dog never bit anybody before, there’s no record of any prior issue with the dog, violent issue, then … you’re left with having to show from a legal standpoint is that there was ‘prior vicious propensity,’” D’Agostino stated.
In many circumstances dealt with by the D’Agostino agency, analysis on a canine reveals that the canines haven’t any prior report.
“So, what we then need to show, through other circumstances, is that, for example, other people on the block were scared of this dog, any time someone came near this dog it would growl at them or snare its teeth,” D’Agostino stated. “It would show more than typical canine behavior; not just barking or jumping up on the window, something to show that it could be a vicious animal, and it probably will bite somebody if you come close to it.”
In Khalil’s state of affairs, that enterprise is tough. How can somebody collect sources and background data whereas not figuring out something in regards to the canine proprietor?
“In a situation where a dog bite victim has literally no information on the dog owner or anything, they’re kind of out of luck, unfortunately,” D’Agostino stated.
New Jersey legal guidelines are totally different, D’Agostino stated. In New Jersey, the legislation states that if a person is in your property legally and your canine bites somebody, you’re held liable, he stated. This legal responsibility even applies if an individual is lawfully in a public place, based on the New Jersey Certified Animal Control Officers Association.
“You don’t need to show a prior bite,’’ D’Agostino said. “You don’t need to show a vicious propensity. In New York, they give you that hurdle.”
In New York, a canine is handled like property and within the occasion that your canine injures one other individual, there may be “at least a moral obligation” to stay on the scene, if not a authorized obligation in severe conditions leading to clear accidents, D’Agostino stated. In sure circumstances, a pronounced damage just isn’t obvious, and events half methods unaware of the extent of the inflicted damage. It’s in these conditions that victims are sometimes left with out the opposite occasion’s data.
Regardless, the proprietor in Khalil’s case didn’t reportedly stay on the scene, and, in a method, it resembles a hit-and-run, D’Agostino stated. With no data, nothing can really transfer forward within the case.
Even if Khalil had the canine proprietor’s data, that individual wouldn’t essentially be liable to cowl any accrued medical bills, D’Agostino stated.
“If you do have medical expenses, or out of pocket expenses, to get those covered by the dog owner’s insurance you would have to bring a claim for personal injury, and that would be included in a settlement,” D’Agostino stated.
“Medical bills, as well as pain and suffering damages, would be included in a settlement,” D’Agostino added. “The dog owner is not obligated to pay medical expenses for the person that got injured because they may not be liable if the law is protecting them.”
In the hopes of garnering assist to assist in masking medical prices, Khalil has created a gofundme web page, which might be accessed by clicking here.
