Can you shoot a dog if attacks you or your family?

[zbordas]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?secti ... id=6044724

If you end up in the same situation can you shoot/kill the dog(s) if your or somebody's life is in danger? Can you prove later that your life was really in danger? I know it is a felony to kill someone's dog without the owner's permission. Can you end up being a felon just for defending yourself or your family?

[seamusTX]

You can shoot an animal as a last resort, but I think pepper spray is more appropriate. A walking stick is also an asset if you are walking dogs, which seems attract dog attacks more than a human without a dog.

BTW, the defense is necessity, PC §9.22.

You could indeed end up in legal trouble if you could not persuade prosecutors that the dog was a threat.

This topic has been discussed many times, but I can't get the search function to do what I want this morning.

- Jim

[Keith B]

If a dog is actually attacking me or my family, then I am going to do whatever I need to do to stop the attack. That includes shooting a dog capable of seriously injuring or killing someone if necessary.

What the fallout would be, who knows, but I would deal with it after the incident.

IANAL, but looking at the injuries the lady sustained, I would say there was serious bodily harm incurred and it would be justified.

[Lumberjack98]

If you end up in the same situation can you shoot/kill the dog(s) if your or somebody's life is in danger?

Yes

Can you prove later that your life was really in danger?

Yes

I know it is a felony to kill someone's dog without the owner's permission. Can you end up being a felon just for defending yourself or your family?

It's a felony to kill someone, but if you do it in legitimate self defense, you will not be charged with a felony.

[aardwolf]

I can easily explain to a jury why a dog attack risks serious bodily injury and deadly force is justified. I would also sue the owner.

In the situation in the article, she should push to charge the dogs' owner with dog fighting. If the DA refused I would take it to the court of public opinion when he runs for reelection and let him explain why he didn't prosecute the owner of pit bulls that attacked me and killed my dog. Emotion is more important than logic in public relations.

[Tactical_Texan_CHL]

Our city has a very bad pit bull issue. Our pound even has a restricted section for pits they pick up. It seems that people raise them for fighting around here, and they get loose fairly often. I can't say I blame them, I'd try to escape too if someone were regularly beating me to make me mean. I NEVER take the kids to the park or for walks without carrying. That's one time my wife is 100% behind me carrying. If one even got near us growling and appearing menacing, I would shoot with no hesitation. I've worked in the ER long enough to see what happens when big dogs attack kids.

[Doug.38PR]

If someone doesn't take steps to train and/or control their animal, then it is their fault if the animal is shot.

Personally, I like animals. I wouldn't shoot one unless I absolutely had to. I would try to fight a dog off if I could. If it was a little Taco Bell dog...then obviously I'm going to give it a swift kick. If it is a big vicious pitbull on rabies foming at the mouth...it's going to get dropped as soon as it shines it's teeth at me

[jnkirk1974]

Can you shoot a dog if attacks you or your family?

..........does a wild bear poop in the woods?

[KBCraig]

BTW, the defense is necessity, PC §9.22.

And "Necessity" can be a successful defense even when the underlying conduct isn't politically popular.

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/125724.html

Successful Medical Necessity Defense in Texas Marijuana Case

Jacob Sullum | March 27, 2008, 12:44pm

This week Tim Stevens, a 53-year-old Amarillo man who smokes marijuana to relieve the cyclical vomiting syndrome associated with HIV infection, used a necessity defense to win an acquittal on a possession charge. His attorney, Jeff Blackburn, says this appears to be the first time the defense, which argues that breaking the law was necessary to prevent a harm worse than the one the law is aimed at preventing, has been successful in a Texas marijuana case.

Stevens, whose vomiting has been so severe that he was hospitalized and received blood transfusions, was arrested last October after an anonymous tipster saw him sharing a joint on a friend's porch in Amarillo and called the police. He had about a twelfth of an ounce of marijuana, resulting in a Class B misdemeanor charge that carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. He probably could have gotten off with a fine or a year's probation, Blackburn says, "but he didn't want to; he wanted to take a stand." The trial lasted about 10 hours on Tuesday, and the jury came back after 11 minutes with a "not guilty" verdict.

Blackburn says the expert testimony of Steve Jenison, medical director of the Infectious Diseases Bureau in New Mexico's Department of Health, helped establish that marijuana is demonstrably effective at treating nausea and superior in some ways to the legal alternatives. (For one thing, unlike the synthetic THC capsule Marinol, it does not have to be swallowed and kept down, a feat for someone suffering from severe nausea.) Blackburn, who was not at all confident about the prospects for Stevens' unusual defense in a "very, very conservative area," also credits "a streak of independence" and a "distaste for government" that he says is common in West Texas. "I think these jurors like the idea that they get to make a decision about what the law means, about when it applies," he says, "and I don't think they were shy at all about deciding how valuable the law proscribing marijuana use really is."

[asleepatthereel]

You can shoot an animal as a last resort, but I think pepper spray is more appropriate. A walking stick is also an asset if you are walking dogs, which seems attract dog attacks more than a human without a dog.

BTW, the defense is necessity, PC §9.22.

You could indeed end up in legal trouble if you could not persuade prosecutors that the dog was a threat.

This topic has been discussed many times, but I can't get the search function to do what I want this morning.

- Jim

I could be wrong, and it wouldnt surprise me, but I recall reading somewhere that pepper spray has little effect on dogs. That said, I often see postal workers carrying spray. Maybe it was another animal that isnt affected.
Ill Google it.

[seamusTX]

... I recall reading somewhere that pepper spray has little effect on dogs.

There are accounts of dogs and people in attack mode being unaffected, or at least not stopped immediately, by pepper spray.

In every situation you have to balance risks.

If you use pepper spray, it might work or it might not. If it works, problem solved. If it doesn't, you could suffer nasty bites.

If you shoot, you might shoot yourself or another person (it happens to cops several times a year during dog attacks). It's difficult to hit a small moving target at an angle that we don't usually practice with. If the shooting occurs in a built-up area, you most likely are going to visit the police station until they can sort out the situation.

- Jim

[Charles L. Cotton]

Yes, you can shoot a dog under the circumstances in this event. The new PETA extreme nut-job statute that passed this last session doesn't help, but there are other defenses, such as "necessity" as already mentioned.

BTW, the lady who was attacked is my cousin. She's one of the sweetest people I know and I'm not a happy man.

Chas.

[Snake Doctor]

1) Chas, sorry to hear that this was a family member.

2) I'm with Doug38.PR 100%. I love animals and despise people who mistreat them, but let me be clear: I know my place in the food chain. You try to hurt me--human or animal alike--I'm putting you on the ground.

3) This is opinion based in no fact, but I would assume that if you sprayed a regular, relaxed dog with OC, you'd get a definite reaction. But just like a human on drugs or something else barring them from common sense, a dog ready to fight will likely be affected little, if at all.

[Tactical_Texan_CHL]

Charles, I'm very sorry for your cousin. It's tough loosing a pet, but she did the right thing. The assanine comments on the story online burned me up. I hope things work out for her. I'm a pet lover myself, but I have no use for pit bulls, and I hope they can get some satisfaction from the community.

[HankB]

The word "asinine" doesn't even BEGIN to describe the depths of sheer idiocy plumbed by some of the comments in the news story. Charles, your cousin - absolutely! - did the right thing.

As for the original question . . .

I like dogs.

Most dogs - even strays - are friendly.

But if I or a member of my family were attacked by one big enough to pose a threat - I'd shoot the cur without a second thought.