Veritas
Regular Member
imported post
Heard a story about a friend of a friend last night who was walking her little dog through her neighborhood when a larger, more aggressive, dog escaped his yard and attacked the small dog she was walking. The little dog was injured, but fortunately survived (after a hefty vet bill, which the police informed the aggressive dog's owners that they would be responsible for). This got me thinking...
If someone is walking their dog and another dog aggressively attacks their pet, I don't believe the law allows them to shoot the aggressive dog in self defense of their own dog. As I understand the law, a dog is considered property and discharging a firearm in the protection of property is considered a no-no in most jurisdictions. Can anyone confirm this?
Though I suppose that, as "the property owner", you have all the right in the world to intervene in the scuffle and if you, yourself, are in danger of being attacked then discharging your weapon in your own self defense is justifiable.
Don't get me wrong... as I've said many times before, I am not looking for justifiable reasons to kill anything; including animals. But hearing this story got me thinking about what legal actions would be available to me if I ever found myself in a similar circumstance while carrying a firearm.
This might go back to my questions from before about what happens if a large animal (like a deer) enters your property and attacks a pet. I believe it was mentioned to me that the law can vary by jurisdiction. I don't know if things change though once you enter the public domain.
Heard a story about a friend of a friend last night who was walking her little dog through her neighborhood when a larger, more aggressive, dog escaped his yard and attacked the small dog she was walking. The little dog was injured, but fortunately survived (after a hefty vet bill, which the police informed the aggressive dog's owners that they would be responsible for). This got me thinking...
If someone is walking their dog and another dog aggressively attacks their pet, I don't believe the law allows them to shoot the aggressive dog in self defense of their own dog. As I understand the law, a dog is considered property and discharging a firearm in the protection of property is considered a no-no in most jurisdictions. Can anyone confirm this?
Though I suppose that, as "the property owner", you have all the right in the world to intervene in the scuffle and if you, yourself, are in danger of being attacked then discharging your weapon in your own self defense is justifiable.
Don't get me wrong... as I've said many times before, I am not looking for justifiable reasons to kill anything; including animals. But hearing this story got me thinking about what legal actions would be available to me if I ever found myself in a similar circumstance while carrying a firearm.
This might go back to my questions from before about what happens if a large animal (like a deer) enters your property and attacks a pet. I believe it was mentioned to me that the law can vary by jurisdiction. I don't know if things change though once you enter the public domain.