Can I shoot a dog attacking my dog in Illinois? A Comprehensive Guide

Dog Bite Laws for Illinois Residents

According to 510 ILCS 5/16, the owner of any dog or animal who attacks, attempts to attack, or injures a person without provocation may be liable for all damages that the injured person sustains. The victim must be lawfully in a private place or public place to qualify for compensation.

Dog owners are strictly liable in these situations. This means that you do not need to prove negligence or a history of previous attacks in order to file a successful lawsuit. Instead, you will need to establish the following facts.

The dog attacked or attempted to attack you and cause you injury.

You had the legal right to be where the incident occurred.

You did not provoke the dog in any way.

Filing a lawsuit enables you to recover financial compensation for the physical, emotional, and financial impact of the dog attack. Possible damages in these cases include medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and property damage.

There are legal justifications for killing someone else’s dog in some situations—especially when it’s necessary to protect people or property.By

Dogs, cats, and other animals are treated like property under the law. That usually means that people who kill someone elses dog may have to compensate the owner, just as if they destroyed another kind of property that wasnt theirs. They could also face criminal charges, including animal cruelty or criminal property damage. But there are exceptions—certain circumstances when people have the legal right to kill a dog. Some of these exceptions are written into state and local laws, while courts have recognized others.

Most animal cruelty laws make it a crime to kill or injure animals “unnecessarily” or “without justification.” The most obvious justification is self-defense or defending another person from harm. That doesnt necessarily mean, however, that you can shoot a dog just because its growling or barking at you or it has bitten someone in the past. The general rule most courts follow: You must believe its necessary to kill or injure the animal in order to prevent an immediate threat of serious injury—and that belief must be reasonable. (See, for example, Grizzle v. State, 707 P.2d 1210 (Okla. Crim. App. 1985).) Some states, like Georgia, have explicitly included this rule in their laws (Ga. Code Ann. § 16-12-40).

Are you allowed to kill a dog if its not in the midst of attacking a person? That depends on the circumstances, as well as the language in any applicable state laws. For example:

A Pennsylvania statute says that its legal to kill a dog seen in the act of chasing or attacking people or other domestic animals, including pets (3 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 459-501). Its not clear, however, how much time might elapse being seeing the attack and killing the dog.

A man was charged with animal cruelty after he shot and killed a large Labrador that ran onto his property and attacked his beagle. There were several small children in the vicinity, and the Lab had previously bitten the mans daughter. New York state law didnt give him the right to kill the dog just because it was trespassing (more on that below). Under the circumstances, however, the court found that hed acted reasonably to protect the children. (People v. Wicker, 78 Misc. 2d 811 (N.Y. Town Ct. 1974).)

A father was convicted of animal cruelty for killing his girlfriends eight-pound dog after the animal bit their daughter. Because hed already gotten control over the dog before he killed it, the court found that his actions werent necessary to defend his daughter. (Com. v. Daly, 56 N.E.3d 841 (Mass. App. Ct. 2016).)

Many states also have laws that make it legal for farmers or others to kill dogs that are chasing, harassing, or injuring their livestock or domestic animals—which may or may not include pets. (For more details, see “When Dogs Hurt or Chase Livestock.”)

The method of killing the dog must be lawful

Even though a dog might be killed in self-defense, criminal charges might be brought because of the method in which the dog was killed. There have been many cases in which a person shot a vicious dog in self-defense but was prosecuted criminally for animal cruelty, discharge of a firearm within city limits, possession of a concealed weapon, or possession of an illegal weapon. These defendants included:

A police officer who shot a dog that was killing his own dog on his driveway.

A wheelchair-bound veteran who shot the pit bull that had ripped the wheel off his wheelchair the day before (and was lunging at him when he shot it).

A man who shot a dog that had bit his 3-year-old daughters face a year before and which, right before the shooting, had gotten into his backyard and chased his kids into the house.

Until the dog laws are changed, so that there is a presumption that one has acted in self-defense when killing a dog under these circumstances, killing a vicious dog must be regarded as a last-ditch, life-or-death alternative.

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