What Are The Laws That Protect Your Dog?
I am wondering what laws are in place that protect your dog. Like lets say you are in a public place, with your dog on a leash, but someone attacks you and the dog attacks the person who attacks you and bites them and causes damage to them. In this case can the person sue you and the dog be put down, and I find myself in alot of legal problems? I am getting a Doberman Pinscher and I live in the state of Illinois. So I figured I’d see if anyone knew where I could find legal info on that sort of thing and what my rights are. I was reading that some insurance companies dont even cover certain breeds of dogs. I still have to call mines and see if Dobermans are covered (doubtful).
It isn’t even that they don’t cover the breed but you may likely have an extremely difficult time getting homeowners insurance at all. And if you rent, often landlords cannot rent to people owning Dobermans and other designated breeds because their insurance won’t cover them. The laws can be iffy at best and usually depends upon your municipality but basically if you in any way show that you knew you had a ‘dangerous dog’ which is ambiguous term in and of itself, then you are libel for any damages it does even if it is doing them in the protection of you.
The person can ALWAYS sue you but whether they win or not is another matter but given you have a ‘dangerous breed’ they have a much better chance than if you had say a Dandy Dinmont Terrier or Poodle… As far as the dog being put down, depends on your area and the laws – some give them two bites, some one so that you will have to check with the legal authorities about.
What has made it all worse is that not only are there a lot of stupid people owning dogs that they really have no business owning because they can’t train and control them and are not responsible people to begin with, but stupid is pretty prevalent and most state and most populations have no problem voting them into various offices 
Good luck!
NatureChannel.tv – Iggy and Holly go to Rock Cut State Park, Rockford Illinois, August 23, 2009