Can You Sue If You Are Attacked By A Cat?
Michael Babboni
Personal Injury
Most of the time when we look at injuries in the home as the result of animals, and the possibility of a lawsuit, we normally talk about dogs. Dogs, after all, may be large, powerful, and in some cases even trained to guard properties and attack people. Dogs tend to be both more aggressive and more territorial when it comes to a home, and so it’s not all that uncommon for animal attacks to occur with dogs biting people. There are many laws in place laying out the rights of dog owners and visitors, and what happens if a dog bites another person.Cats, on the other hand, are far less common. Even though the cat is very nearly the equal of a dog in terms of house pet popularity, you rarely hear on the news about personal injury lawyers representing clients for a cat attack.
That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, however. It simply means that these situations are much rarer and tied to a much more specific line of legal protection.
Cats Are Less Aggressive
The nature of most cats tends towards the fact that they are smaller animals, and realize this. Consequently, the majority of cats are smart enough to know that they are not a physical match for a human in a fight, and tend to flee if they feel endangered, rather than try to fight it out the way a dog might. This usually means that even if a cat is unfriendly, its first response to people invading its space will be to hide, or better yet, leave the area. Aggressive territorial behavior is extremely rare in cats.
In a legal sense, this also gives cat owners quite a bit more leeway when it comes to protection for a personal injury lawsuit. This is especially true if a cat is normally known to be a friendly or timid cat. It’s generally accepted that cats can, on very rare occasions, exhibit unpredicted behavior, sometimes even violent. So when this happens, especially with a cat that has a general history of passive behavior, the law will usually find favor with the cat owner.
Negligence Still Applies
Of course, not all cats are like this. It’s rare, but some cats are very aggressive and hostile, sometimes even to their owners. In these instances where a cat is known to react violently to the presence of people, cat owners do have a legal responsibility to ensure the safety of visitors to the home.
Thus, if a cat owner knows their particular pet is prone to clawing and biting other people, and doesn’t confine the cat, or even warn others about the possibility of a hostile reaction to being petted, there’s legal ground to stand on for an attack victim. Here, if a person is bitten or clawed, and it eventually comes out the owner knew this was a likely possibility, but did nothing, that is an act of negligence, and the home/pet owner is liable for any harm that may have been caused by the cat.
If this is your situation, and you’ve been the unfortunate and highly unorthodox victim of negligence resulting in a cat attack, you might want to talk to a personal injury lawyer in St. Petersburg to look at your case.