Going through the archive, I realised that the story about the dog attack had been moved on the Statesman site. I added it to my blog entry on the subject, as well as the story concerning charges being brought against the dog owner.
He’s still sitting around awaiting a trial, which has been rescheduled for January 16, 2007.
I’m beginning to wonder if he’ll ever face trial, myself. The government in Milam county clearly doesn’t think that it’s important enough, or they have sympathy with the dog owner rather than the victim who was innocently minding her own business when she was attacked.
Editor’s note. Reading back through the early blog articles I was stunned to realize I never followed up on this story. Sadly, the jury was unwilling to convict the dog owner. I found a legal opinion on the subject here a portion of which follows. There is more information at the above link if you are interested.
Health & Safety Code §822.041 provides that a court may declare a dog “dangerous” basically if it causes injury in an unprovoked attack. It is a Class C misdemeanor if the owner violates the provisions of the dangerous dog law or the dog causes serious injury in an unprovoked attack. It is a Class A misdemeanor if the dangerous dog causes a death of a person in an unprovoked attack. A $10,000 penalty may also be imposed on the owner whose dangerous dog causes serious injury or kills someone. Texas Heath & Safety Code §§822.044, 822.045. (See generally Dangerous and Vicious Dogs for discussion of the legal meaning of “dangerous” and the issues pertaining to legal “dangerousness.”)
If a dog has not been previously declared “dangerous,” however, there is a “loophole” in the law, in that there is no law that addresses the situation. Given the savageness of this killing, prosecutors attempted to apply the general law. To make the punishment fit the crime, the grand jury indicted Jose Hernandez for criminally negligent homicide. His trial took place in March 2007.
The conviction of this dog owner depended upon overcoming the bane of dog bite victims, namely the one-bite rule. Under this ancient British legal doctrine, the owner of any domestic animal is not held responsible for the first bite, the first mauling, or the first killing by each and every one of his animals. (See The One Bite Rule.) Texas is in a minority of states that continues to salute the flag of Great Britain when it comes to dog bite laws. (For lists of states that follow or have abrogated the one bite rule, see Legal Rights of Dog Bite Victims in the USA.)
Hernandez testified that he had no idea his animals were capable of such brutality. He admitted none of his animals had ever been seen by a veterinarian and hadn’t been vaccinated. Several other witnesses for the defense testified that Hernandez’ dogs were not aggressive and were not trained to be aggressive.
The jury found Hernandez not guilty.
Kenneth M. Phillips, The Lillian Stiles case (Texas v. Hernandez)
I had never heard of the one bite rule before in my life. I’m actually horrified that this is defacto law in Texas. The legislature did update the laws after the verdict in this case, but the laws remain woefully lax when it comes to holding dog owners responsible for the behavior of their animals.
We had a trained pit fighting dog break into our yard and attack one of our dogs a few years back. Our dog (Corona) never recovered from that attack and died shortly afterwards. I wondered why the cops told us privately afterwards that if we wanted the attacking dog put down, we should have done it ourselves while we had the chance. These laws and the rulings in the above case prove the point. If you expect justice for injury from another person’s pet, be prepared to exact it yourself while the offending animal is on your property. There is nothing that the other person can do about it in Texas. It’s an animal trespassing on your property, so you can kill it. Weird, isn’t it?
