Georgia Injury Law Blog

An eight-year-old girl has suffered critical injuries in an attack involving two dogs outside her home in DeKalb County.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Erin Ingraham was playing outside her home on Tuesday afternoon when she was approached by two Staffordshire Terriers. The dogs attacked her, and officers who responded to the scene had to use batons to pry the animals off the little child. The two dogs then attacked the officer, upon which the dog was shot and killed. The second dog ran away from the scene and was later captured by animal control officers.

The owner of the dog has been located and is likely to face charges. Erin suffered serious injuries that required vascular and plastic surgery. This has been a horrific attack by any standards, and we wish Erin a speedy and complete recovery. Unfortunately, it looks like Erin has a long recuperation period ahead of her. The next few weeks, or even months, are not going to be easy.

According to other reports, residents in the same neighborhood had been afraid for their safety from the aggressive behavior of the two dogs for a while now. One neighbor says that the dog attacked her cat as well as another person. In fact, the neighbors aren't even surprised that such a savage attack occurred.

Georgia's dog bite laws may not be as tough on owners of dogs involved in attacks, as in many other states where such attacks come under strict liability statutes. In Georgia, a dog in an attack must have a previous known history of aggressiveness or viciousness for the owner to be held liable. That doesn't mean that the dog must have been involved in a prior injury or attack. If the dog had been aggressive or displayed vicious tendencies in the past, and if the owner was aware of these, there could be grounds for recovery.

The Atlanta dog bite lawyers at the Katz Law Firm represent injured victims of dog bites and attacks in the metro Atlanta region, and around the state of Georgia.

Posted By Lisa Siegel In Animal attacks | 0 Comments Permalink

Wildlife lovers have been citing last week’s fatal orca attack at SeaWorld in Orlando as a prime example of the fact that wild animals deserve to be free, and not forced to be performing monkeys. However, as Atlanta injury lawyers who represent victims of dog bites, we have been more concerned about the fact that the killer whale in the attack here had been cited in at least two previous deaths

If you’ve missed the story, here’s the background. Tilikum, a killer whale at Orlando’s SeaWorld, dragged its trainer Dawn Brancheau into the water, killing her.  The 40- year-old trainer was rubbing the whale down after the show when it apparently grabbed her in its mouth, and thrashed her from side to side. Brancheau was dead before anyone else could get into the water. It’s not clear if she drowned or died from the thrashing.

Tilikum had been involved in at least two previous deaths at water parks. The first death occurred at a facility in British Columbia, when a trainer fell into the tank and was attacked by three whales, including Tilikum. The other tragedy involved a man who was found dead and draped around the whale’s back in the tank. He had either sneaked into the tank or fallen in.

While the attack has received a great deal of attention around the world, there are questions we must ask about the safely standards seen here. Tilikum’s previous attacks and his massive size was enough reason for SeaWorld to designate a limited number of trainers who could work with him. Brancheau was one of the few trainers at the facility who was allowed to handle him. Wouldn’t it have been better if he had been simply retired from his performing life?  We expect answers to these questions over time.

Posted By Lisa Siegel In Animal attacks | 0 Comments Permalink

Elderly Woman Escapes Injuries in Dog Attack in Marietta

An elderly woman, who was chased by a pair of pit bulls as she walked her dog outside her Marietta apartment building, was lucky enough to escape without any serious bites. The dogs are currently in the possession of Cobb County animal control officers.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the woman was walking her dog in the breezeway of her apartment complex when the two dogs began to chase her Jack Russell terrier. The woman tried to fight off the two dogs and in the process, sustained injuries to her nose and hands. The owner of the two dogs has handed them over to Cobb County animal control officers, and they are being tested for rabies.  The owner will likely be cited for failure to control his animals, having a vicious animal and for failure to have current rabies vaccination.

We can now expect a torrent of support from pit bull lovers who continue to insist that dog bite lawyers in Atlanta wrongly focus on these breeds as being particularly vicious. We will admit that we are dog lovers ourselves. We will also admit that other breeds of dogs are also likely to be involved in attacks. But there’s no denying that pit bulls are involved in more numbers of attacks than other breeds. There’s also no denying that many attacks involving pit bulls tend to be serious.

Regardless of the breed however, responsible dog ownership is the most essential factor in preventing these attacks.  In the case here, the dog owner was not even able to produce his animals’ rabies vaccination records. This is a prime example of poor and irresponsible dog ownership. Part of owning a dog is making sure that they are secure and leashed at all times, and that they are in safe enclosure through which they cannot escape. The dog must be exercised regularly and must have all his vaccinations on schedule.

Posted By Lisa Siegel In Animal attacks | 0 Comments Permalink

Elderly Lexington Couple Mauled to Death in Dog Attack

Mystery still surrounds the death of a retired professor and his wife, apparently from a vicious dog attack.

On Saturday, the mutilated bodies of retired UGA professor 77-year-old Luther Karl Schweder, and his wife 65-year-old Sherry were found near their home in Lexington. Preliminary autopsies showed that Sherry had died from dog bite injuries. Her husband's autopsy results are not yet available. But it's very likely that Luther Schweder also died from injuries in the dog attack.

The couple’s bodies were found on Saturday morning. Authorities are zeroing in on at least 11 dogs that were seen in the area where the bodies were found.

There have been no recent dog attacks in the area, and there is still no indication if the pack of wild dogs were someone’s pets. Sherry herself owned several dogs, although it's not believed that the dogs that attacked her were her own dogs. Sherry had apparently been out of the house looking for one of her dogs, and her husband apparently went out after her when she didn’t return.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the dogs were still around the dead bodies when the coroner arrived. As of now, there is still much mystery surrounding this tragedy.

Fatal dog bites may not be as common, but such attacks can be vicious. The dogs that attacked Schweder were mixed breeds, but generally, some breeds of dogs lseem to be more vicious and aggressive than others.

A dog bite attack has to be particularly vicious to result in death. Survivors, on the other hand, may be left with severe lacerations, and may require plastic surgery to restore their appearance.  As Georgia dog bite lawyers will tell you, some of these attacks can be brutal enough to leave victims with ripped scalps, severed ears and several other painful and disfiguring injuries. Besides, survivors may face life-long trauma from their experiences.

Posted By Lisa Siegel In Animal attacks | 0 Comments Permalink

A 4-year-old Rockland County boy, who was severely mauled in a dog bite attack, is looking at skin graft surgery to fix the injuries, as well as surgery to fox his ear. Nathaniel Stafford was attacked by a Labrador-pit bull mix that his family had been looking after for its owner. His mother found the boy with his head gripped in the dog’s mouth. The pit bull mix was shaking him violently.  The boy's mother pulled him away, and suffered a bite on her arm in the process.

By the time the terrifying ordeal had ended, much of Nathaniel's scalp had been ripped apart and his ear had been torn off. His stepfather picked up the ear, and put it in a bag to reattach in the hospital. The doctors have not been able to confirm whether they will be reattaching his ear, or if he will need to have a prosthetic ear attached.

Nathaniel is bound to be traumatized after the dog bite attack. Beside the serious head injuries and the mutilated ear, the boy also suffered throat lacerations. He is an animal lover, although how he will react to any dog from here on, is debatable. The dog’s owner meanwhile has agreed to have the dog which is currently being held in quarantine at an animal shelter, put down.

Some breeds of dogs seem to be more aggressive than others, although pit bull lovers will tell you that such allegations are an attempt to tar their reputation. Whatever the breed, owners are required to keep such dogs safely secured so they don’t pose a threat to other people. In Nathaniel's case, the family had been keeping the dog for a month for the dog's owners. There is no information yet on whether the dog has been involved in such attacks earlier.

Several cities in Georgia have enacted stronger legislation to prevent the incidents of dangerous attacks. The Leesburg City council has introduced legislation that will mark dogs that attack other domestic animals as dangerous. Owners will be required to register their dogs if they bite other domesticated animals.

As Georgia dog bite lawyers, we think more could be done to make the state's laws capable of protecting innocent victims. Current state laws in Georgia will only declare a dog as vicious when at least two separate bite attacks have taken place. As we see in little Nathaniel's case, a single attack can leave you with a lifetime of gruesome memories.

Posted By Lisa Siegel In Animal attacks | 0 Comments Permalink

Dog in DeKalb County Attack Quarantined

The dog that attacked and bit an adult male and two children in a house in Lithonia, DeKalb County continues to be quarantined, while the victims have threatened legal action unless the pit bull is put to sleep. 

Maurice Jones has had to undergo treatment at the hospital for wounds sustained in the attack that occurred when the pit bull came chasing after two children, and into the yard of the house he was in. The dog apparently belonged to a neighbor, and although there has been no confirmation yet, it seems to have escaped through a broken down fence that separated the two houses. The two children who were also attacked, including a three-year-old child, sustained serious injuries, including head injuries.

New developments have confirmed that the owner of the house in which the dog bite attack took place had written to his neighbor a week before the incident, expressing concern over the fact that the fence was in a state of disrepair, and that the two dogs – there was another pit-bull raised in the house, besides the one involved in the attack – could break free. No charges have been filed yet, and the owner has expressed his remorse over the incident.

Remorse seems a little irrelevant when you have a three-year-old child whose head has been severely mauled by a pit bull that should never have been unleashed and out of its enclosure. This child has obviously been traumatized, and it's evident that there has been some negligence here which resulted in a known vicious breed of dog escaping and attacking perfectly innocent outsiders. 

Owners of pit bulls and other aggressive breeds of dogs are required to keep these secured, and on a leash. No matter what the provocation, for a pit bull to come rushing out of its enclosure ready to attack anything in its path, is completely unacceptable and gross negligence on the part of its owner.  A victim of a dog bite attack can be eligible for compensation for hospitalization and medical bills.  Extensive plastic surgery may be required to treat any disfigurement or scarring that often results in such animal attacks.   In such cases, an experienced Atlanta dog bite lawyer can help victims obtain the compensation they deserve for all the treatment expenses they may face not only in the immediate future, but also over the long term.

Posted By Lisa Siegel In Animal attacks | 0 Comments Permalink