Your Chihuahua Just Bit The Vet: Will You Get Sued?
Personal injury cases can often take many strange faces. One of the weirdest of these is a chihuahua bite injury against a veterinarian. If this kind of case is looming up in your life and you're afraid of losing your beloved chi, you need to know how to defend yourself.
Chihuahuas Bite Vets Very Often
In a survey of multiple veterinarians, it was found that chihuahuas bite vets the most often. These tiny terrors are often the most afraid during veterinarian visits and bite out of anxiety. Most of the time these bites are minor and the veterinarian laughs them off. However, even a chihuahua can cause serious injuries if they really want to hurt somebody.
That's why it's not uncommon to see a veterinarian get severely injured and even sue a dog owner after their chi bites them. Even worse, they may be aiming to get the dog put down by claiming that they are dangerous. But doesn't the veterinarian have an assumption of risk of dog bites when working with dogs of any breed?
Assumption Of Risk May Not Go Into Effect
In most states, veterinarians cannot sue dog owners when they get bit because there is an assumption of risk. This concept states that the veterinarian is taking an assumptive risk simply by working in their field. As a result, minor or light chihuahua bites are not likely to be a big deal. That said, there are situations in which it might be a problem.
For example, if you tried to hide your chihuahua's past behaviors from the vet (such as biting other veterinarians in the past), you put them in a more dangerous situation. That's because you knew that your chihuahua was likely to bite them, didn't warn them, and they got bit. As a result, they did not fully understand the risk and cannot be said to have assumed it.
When Your Chi Might Be Put Down
In this situation, a lawsuit against you and your pup could go into effect, and your unfortunate chihuahua may be put down if the court finds that they are a danger to others. While chihuahuas obviously don't have the biggest or most dangerous bite, one that regularly attacks people may also attack young children and cause serious injury.
Defense in this kind of case can be very tricky. If you hid anything about past aggressive behavior from the vet, you might be on the losing end in this case. However, you may also be able to prove that the vet did something to provoke the dog, such as grabbing at it while it was growling and snarling. To win this type of tough case, you simply need a high-quality personal injury lawyer to help sort through the complications. Law firms like Loughlin Fitzgerald P C can offer more information.
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