Dog Bites

[Trillipse]

If my dogs damage a person intruding into my house, am i liable to be prosecuted?

If an illegal intruder damages my dogs (in house or in garden, will i then also get scr*wed by the system?

If yes to the above, should i just simply leave the country...?

[jake-the-peg]

I wouldn't have thought so - providing you haven't specifically trained them to attack intruders in which case it might become a bit dicey.

Also providing you don't "set them on" an intruder unless you have a good reason to think you're in danger.

In other words if an intruder hears your dogs and starts to leg it down the garden to get away and you then set your dogs on them you're likely to end up in hot water.

[Chessman]

In addition to what jake-the-peg has said, a 'Beware of the dog' sign in a prominent position woul probably help on the legal side.

[CheekyChops]

There was a case like this in my area last year.  Basically a massive dog which was in it's own house, bit an intruder.

The householder wasn't prosecuted as the dog was inside and the intruder shouldn't have been there in the first place.

[ledow]

I think usually things like this come under the heading of control. If the dog's loose in your front garden without supervision and bites anyone (even an intruder), you could be liable. If he's confined to the house alone I don't see a problem. However, as mentioned above, if there's the slightest suspicion that he's been trained to deliberately attack, either on command or otherwise, you would be in trouble.