Hammer059
Member
A real life situation made me start to wonder what the legal aspect would be. Please note: I'm NOT looking for advice on what to do, I'm just trying to find out whether or not I should expect legal trouble if I were to do this.
So say my dog is out in my yard and an unfriendly animal either looks like it's about to attack or starts to attack my dog. Examples would be another dog or wild or rabid animal. I wouldn't hesitate to intervene if it meant saving my dog's life, so whether or not it's legal wouldn't change my course of action. I simply want to know what to expect legally if another vicious animal attacks my dog on my property and I decide to shoot it.
I guess if it's attacking my dog, I could also argue that it was likely to also attack me also and I shot it in self-defense, which would be pretty reasonable.
Unfortunately I live in a suburban area so I'm not out in the country where I could just handle it myself; there's a chance someone would call the cops if they heard multiple gunshots outside.
Anyway, if you have any knowledge or experience regarding what the legal consequences of this would be (if there are any), I'd like to know. Thanks
So say my dog is out in my yard and an unfriendly animal either looks like it's about to attack or starts to attack my dog. Examples would be another dog or wild or rabid animal. I wouldn't hesitate to intervene if it meant saving my dog's life, so whether or not it's legal wouldn't change my course of action. I simply want to know what to expect legally if another vicious animal attacks my dog on my property and I decide to shoot it.
I guess if it's attacking my dog, I could also argue that it was likely to also attack me also and I shot it in self-defense, which would be pretty reasonable.
Unfortunately I live in a suburban area so I'm not out in the country where I could just handle it myself; there's a chance someone would call the cops if they heard multiple gunshots outside.
Anyway, if you have any knowledge or experience regarding what the legal consequences of this would be (if there are any), I'd like to know. Thanks