There are many pet owners in Chicago, Illinois. Hopefully, most of them keep their animals inside, behind a fence or on a leash, in order to prevent the animals from intruding upon the person or property of other people. If they don’t, and their animal bites someone, the owner may face a very expensive premises liability case.
If you get bitten, the first thing to do is to secure comprehensive medical attention. Any bite can cause serious problems, and it is better to be safe than sorry, so make sure to avoid discounting an injury from a bite just because the searing pain starts to subside after the first few hours. The injury will need to be thoroughly cleaned and the severity of the injury assessed by a physician, who may require that the animal be tested for contagious diseases. The owner of the pit bull that just bit you, whom the owner calls Fluffy, may have something that will require your physician to give you ongoing medical treatment.
You should also get the name, address and phone number of the owner of the animal and of all witnesses so that you can pursue a claim. Everyone has a right to not be bitten and can look into getting paid damages if they are. You can also establish that the owner should have taken precautions to keep the animal from getting close enough to you to bite you. For example, the owner may have let his or her pit bull run loose, or he or she may have had it behind a fence but failed to secure the gate. In essence, you want to establish that it was the owner’s fault that the dog had the opportunity to bite you, and that if the owner had taken proper precautions, the incident would not have happened. Since it did, the owner is responsible for paying your damages.
Source: FindLaw, “Dog Bites and Animal Attack Overview,” accessed March 07, 2018