Understanding Dog Bite Laws and Euthanasia in Washington State: Key Insights

Dog bites happen. It’s just one of those risks we deal with. Their essentially a semi-public risk, meaning that sometimes they might not occur to someone in a public place, however, there is high potential for someone’s dog to attack someone for seemingly no reason. Typically after a dog attack there are a few things that happen, the first, is a call to animal control in an attempt to capture or restrain the offending animal, the second is an attempt to get the dog or animal that bit you euthanized or put down, and the third is to understand what happens next – are you liable, is the offender liable, what kind of money is at stake here?

These same questions are why euthanasia and dog bite regulations in Washington are of particular interest. Now traditionally or by textbook standards, euthanasia is the act or practice of painlessly terminating the life of a person or animal on a basis of judgement that the animal is suffering either an incurable disease or a condition or situation that involves unrelievable pain.

So this is where things can get complicated. Often times the animal that bites someone is someone’s pet or in legal terms their property. So they owner is typically liable in response to a dog bite. However, does that mean that if your dog bites someone else, that it can be euthanized?

In an unbiased law journal the following is discussed in precise detail – “Animals, including dogs, have been considered property for more than 200 years, and no Washington statute has expressly changed this legal status.205 Nevertheless, Washington courts have broadly interpreted property rights in animals as including some of the sensibilities of living creatures.” Meaning that laws concerning dog bites and the outcomes are likely to change based on a variety of factors.

One of the common conditions in which a dog bite may create the need for euthanization of the dog is the dog was infected with rabies. If the dog is infected with rabies and bites a human there is a almost definite probability of the dog being euthanized. In Washington however rabies is not a large problem, with only 39 confirmed cases of rabies in cats and 36 in dogs in 2017. That means 83 confirmed cases of rabies, not statewide but regionally, meaning there could be more cases elsewhere.

In addition, there have only been 34 dog bites that required euthanization in 2015, versus other years. That being said, if you are interested in the type of dog bites, prevention of dog bites, or even the law concerning dog bites or animal control in general, then visit this link for more information.