Help! Dog Bite County Report Question!?
Question by reluctantlyhuman : Help! Dog Bite County Report Question!? Last weekend I went to visit some friends of my parents. Their dog had just had a litter of puppies 6 weeks ago and we were going to play with them. We had visited the same puppies two weeks earlier but they were still pretty small (and slow/sleepy 
.
At 6 weeks of age they had begun to develop those sharp little puppy teeth, and of course we were all covered in little marks by the time we left their house. None of them seemed to have broken the skin.
The next day I was back on campus when I noticed a scratch on my right arm (near the wrist). It was rather red and looked puffy. I kept an eye on it and towards the evening it started to puff up more and became rather itchy. I put an antibiotic cream on it and put an ice pack on it to reduce the puffiness. The next day it looked like it was getting better, but I wanted to make sure I hadn’t caught anything from the pups, so I went to my free campus clinic.
When I got to the clinic I explained what had happened, and the nurses immediately insisted that I had to fill out a vicious dog bite police report. Now keep in mind that these are purebred ($ $ $ ) pups with the highest pedigree, house-raised and whelped by experienced breeders, who happen to be close family friends.
The scratch measured less than half an inch, and no longer showed signs of irritation. But the nurses refused to let me do anything until I fillled out the form, so I simply put down the breed of the dog, the age, and the first name of one of the breeders (I lied and said I didn’t know anything else about them; address, etc. I had no intention of having them even slightly bothered by the police (breeding is one of their sources of income, and ANY police report could damage their business).
The nurse looked at my arm and proclaimed it fine (duh) and then let me go. However, when I came home this weekend my parents told me that they had gotten a call from the County Health Dept. declaring that we HAD to contact the owner to have the dog tested for rabies or they would charge us a $ 100 fine.
Now, I’m not a rocket scientist, but charging $ 100 for a puppy scratch (which I have no idea which puppy it came from, btw) is ridiculous. I won’t contact the owners (under any circumstances), and I need to know how I can convince the County office that I’m fine (nothing wrong) and want to “drop the charges” or whatever the procedure is. Is there a (polite, legal) way to do this?
Thanks for reading.
(…I am seriously regretting that I even showed the nurses the scratch…)
Don’t worry, the puppies are in no way at risk. Most of them are going home this week and the rest should be gone shortly after. I wouldn’t try to get them in trouble; I’m only asking how can I get rid of this stupid fine. (I am still very much against contacting the breeder). Best answer:
Answer by marci knows best
I would tell the county health that you think the nurse must have misunderstood, that this was not a BITE but rather a scratch and that the more you think about it, you may have gotten if from a stray cat that you tried to pat on campus.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Wtf??
You should not have had went to the free clinic in the first place now those pups could pay for your mistake with their lives!!
You could have went to another doctor,and left.Explain to the police that a nip is way different than a vicious dog bite!!
THE PUPPY IS THE REAL VICTIM HERE!! GAH!! YOU SHOULDNT HAVE MADE A BIG DEAL ABOUT IT!! I WOULD HAVE NEVER FILLED OUT A FORM NO MATTER WHAT!!
You can’t drop the charges because it’s the County Health Dept that raises charges, not you. You shouldn’t have gone to the nurses or filled out a report. They can not make you. Now that you have, there’s nothing to do. Either give them the contact information of the breeders and let them handle it or pay the fine.
If you really want to protect the integrity of the breeders, then pay the fine.
those nurses are the stupidest people ever!!!!! those are defenseless innocent little puppies. thats not a vicious dog bite! god! su the nurses! go to an actual trained medical professional!! even though i am against breeding dogs no matter what,unless for scientific purposes, i say tell the owners what happened. because more than likely the dogs will be put down, if they are considered vicious, in ur case they aren’t.If those owners really care about those dogs well being, not just they fact for money, they will pay the fine and protect the puppies, or u just pay the fine.