7 Alabama Dog Bite Rules That Leave Owners Paying

If your dog bites someone in Alabama, a health officer can order a 10-day quarantine, and you could be paying for it.

That’s on top of whatever the person who was bitten asks for.

Here are the Alabama dog bite rules that leave owners paying.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Dog bite, rabies and local animal control rules are subject to change.

1. Bites on Your Property

Alabama’s dog bite statute makes you liable in damages when your dog bites someone without provocation.

The person also has to be lawfully on property you own or control, or your dog has just chased them off it.

A bite somewhere else, like a sidewalk down the block, falls under a different test.

There, the question is whether you had reason to know your dog was dangerous.

2. Proving You Had No Warning

To limit what you owe, you have to prove you had no knowledge of anything indicating your dog was vicious, dangerous or mischievous.

If you can’t, that limit doesn’t apply and you can owe full damages.

If you can, you still owe the person’s actual expenses from the bite or injury.

On that point, the burden of proof falls on you, not on the person your dog bit.

3. Dangerous Dog Hearings

Your dog can end up in front of a judge after a dog bite.

A dog can be declared dangerous once it has bitten or attacked a person without justification.

A dog is presumed not dangerous if the incident happened on its owner’s property or the victim was trespassing.

Anyone who claims a dog is dangerous can make a sworn statement before a city magistrate or sheriff.

An investigation that backs the claim gets your dog impounded, and you owe the county, the city or the veterinarian you choose for the stay.

Serious injury or death means the judge must order the dog euthanized.

Without serious injury or death, the judge decides whether the dog is likely to cause serious injury or death in the future.

If so, the judge can order euthanasia or send your dog home on conditions.

You pay a $100 registration fee every year.

The law requires a surety bond of at least $100,000 covering bites, injuries or death.

The investigation, pickup and hearing costs are yours too.

A dog a judge has declared dangerous has to be on a secure collar and leash, with you present, whenever it’s outside its enclosure.

A first violation is a Class C misdemeanor.

A second or later violation is a Class B misdemeanor.

If you don’t comply with the court’s orders within 30 days, the statute requires euthanasia.

4. Criminal Charges After an Attack

A bite can put you in criminal court, not just civil court.

Once a judge has declared your dog dangerous, an attack without justification that causes serious injury or death brings a felony charge.

A dog that isn’t declared dangerous can still put you in felony territory when you knew its dangerous tendencies and showed reckless disregard.

Injuries that aren’t serious make it a misdemeanor.

A conviction makes you pay for the dog’s shelter, food and veterinary costs, the victim’s medical expenses and the cost of destroying the dog.

That’s on top of fines.

5. 10-Day Quarantine Bills

After a dog bite, Alabama’s rabies law has a health officer place your dog in quarantine under a licensed veterinarian’s supervision.

That observation period runs 10 days from the date of the exposure, unless the health officer directs otherwise.

Quarantine isn’t free.

You pay any expenses the quarantine adds.

Refusing a health officer’s lawful order is a violation of the rabies law.

You can’t sell, give away or move your dog to another location until a health officer, rabies officer or veterinarian releases it.

6. Lapsed Rabies Shots

A lapsed rabies shot changes what quarantine costs you after a dog bite.

Alabama requires owners to have their dogs vaccinated against rabies.

A vaccinated dog may qualify to finish quarantine at home, saving you the expense of veterinary confinement.

The catch?

A health officer has to approve it.

And the bite has to have been provoked.

Alabama’s health department gives feeding, grabbing and threatening as examples of provoking a dog.

A lapsed shot can rule out home quarantine, which leaves you paying for veterinary confinement.

7. Failing to Report a Bite

A dog bite you know about and don’t report is a separate offense under Alabama’s rabies law.

The law makes it unlawful for anyone who knows a person was bitten to skip notifying a rabies officer or health officer.

That includes you.

The offense is a Class C misdemeanor.

Alabama’s maximum fine for that class is $500.

Dogs Running at Large

Alabama’s dog-at-large statute makes owners keep their dogs on their property or wherever they’re regularly kept.

Your dog can leave only when you or someone else in charge of it goes along.

A violation is a misdemeanor with a fine of $2 to $50.

Counties decide.

The statute applies in a county only after the county commission adopts it.

It doesn’t apply inside cities and towns that require dog license tags.

Mobile County’s commission adopted it in 2018 for the unincorporated parts of the county.

An owner whose dog roams unrestrained would owe about $250 in court costs there.

City Leash Rules

Alabama’s rabies law leaves cities free to prohibit dogs from running at large, so leash rules vary by city.