Who's at fault?

[Chantal]

I have a neighbor who has a male boxer (about 65 pounds), and a neighbor who has a male American bulldog (about 105 pounds). These dogs have never played together, but each one separately has played with my two female Rotts. On Saturday, while my fiance was home, the bulldog owner was walking him on a leash in front of our house, at the same time, the boxer down the street was let out the front door by their 2 year old. So, the boxer comes running up to our house, and runs over to the bulldog. Now, no one else saw anything, so we don't know who attacked first, but the bulldog bit the boxer in the face. Three grown men could not get the bulldog to let go. They tried to pry it's mouth open, but it was so far clamped down, that they couldn't get anything in it's mouth. My fiance got the hose, and started squirting them. Still he doesn't let go. My fiance finally stuck the hose right up the bulldogs nose, and he let go, I'm assuming because he couldn't breath. Neighbors across the street said it went on for about 10 minutes. The boxer had to get 4 stiches in the face, i'm very surprised that's all, there was blood everywhere, and the vet said he was 1 inch away from the jugular vein. Now, I realize that the boxer should not have gotten loose, but the bulldog just wouldn't let go. Who should be held responsible for the vet bills? Should the incident be reported? Who's at fault???

[CajunsMom]

but the Am Bull was on a leash, the Boxer was not. I don't think it matters how the Boxer got out, but it came after the Am Bull that was on leash. Owners of the Boxer would be responsible in my opinion.

[MARYDVM]

If the AB's owner had had a breaking stick, and the knowledge to use it, the dogs would have been seperated in less than a minute. The American Bulldog is bred to bite and hold (wild boar and cattle) and needs an owner who is prepared to deal with this trait. In my opinion the owner of the loose dog is responsible for his dog's vet bills - there would have been no incident if the Boxer had not been loose.

[Teena]

What is a breaking stick Mary?

NM, I did a search and found it.

http://www.pbrc.net/breaksticks.html