Does Your Dog Bite? Dangerous Animals & The Resulting Claims

• Published date: 17 June 2020
• Author: Mr Peter Roberts
• Law Firm: Lawson Lundell LLP

There is a wonderful scene in the 1976 Peter Seller's film The Pink Panther Strikes Again in which he arrives at a Swiss hotel seeking a room. After a brief colloquy with the hotelier over obtaining a "rume," he turns from the front desk to see a long haired dachshund lying quietly in the doorway leading to his suite. He asks the innkeeper, "Does your dawg bite?" and is met with a firm "no" in response. Sellers then kneels down to pat the hound, whereupon it leaps up to viciously bite his hand. Perplexed, he turns back to the front desk to exclaim "I thought you said your dawg did not bite!" Nonplussed, the proprietor replies "That is not my dog." Wonderful comedy but, in the real world a potentially serious event that often leads to litigation.

Claims arising from injuries caused by animals, such as dogs, are usually premised on allegations of negligence and, occasionally, occupier's liability where the injury occurred on the property where the animal was kept. A third type of claim arises from the legal...