Responsibilities that come with man?s best friend

Local law enforcement and health officials want local residents to be mindful of the laws governing domesticated animals. The police log released by the Washington Communications Center indicated that a 4-year-old girl was bitten by a dog at a neighbor?s residence Saturday morning in Washington.     

Iowa law states that dog owners shall be liable to an injured party for all damages done by the dog such as when the dog maims or kills a domestic animal or when the dog attacks or attempts to bite a person. This does not apply when the person injured was doing an unlawful act that directly contributed to the injury.

The law states that pet owners have a responsibility to notify local health or law enforcement officials if their pet has bitten a person. In turn, physicians and veterinarians are obligated to report to the local board of health the existence of any animal known or suspected to be suffering from rabies.

Washington County Environmental Health Inspector Jeff Thomann said people who are bitten by dogs fill out a form for local law enforcement. Law enforcement attempts to locate the dog and will then impound it so it can be checked by a veterinarian. The veterinarian will check to see if the dog has been given a rabies shot. If the owner cannot be found, the veterinarians may have to euthanize the animal.

Thomann said that the animals are then taken to the State Hygienic Laboratory in Coralville where they are examined for rabies. Thomann remembers a few incidents of dogs being euthanized after biting a human and then being taken to the State Hygienic Lab. He said one case involved a state patrol officer who was bitten. Another case involved a woman who was bitten by a dog after she released it from a trap. Thomann said rabies was not found in any of those cases.

State law says that dogs must be vaccinated for rabies. Dogs that run at large will be impounded if they are found without a valid rabies vaccination tag or if a rabies vaccination certificate is not presented to the local board of health or law enforcement official.

Dogs aren?t the only animals that can contract rabies. In fact, wild animals are much more commonly found to have rabies than dogs. The Iowa Department of Public Health keeps statistics on the number and species of animals that test positive for rabies each year. The number of animals that have tested positive for rabies has declined from 105 in 2005 to 27 in 2010. From 2001 to 2010, the animal with the most number of positive rabies tests in the state was bats with 285, followed by skunks with 205. There were 68 cases of rabies reported in cats, 53 in cows and 27 in dogs.

Thomann said that if a person awakes and finds a bat in their room, they should have the bat tested for rabies. He said that a bat should also be tested if it is found in a room with a young child. If the test comes back positive or indeterminate, the person is advised to take the human rabies vaccine.  

Local law enforcement keeps track of dog bites to determine if the same dog has bitten a person on more than one occasion. This can lead to the dog being declared a ?vicious dog,? which carries with it a citation against the owner.

All towns in the county have laws that prevent dogs from running at large. They require dog owners to put their dog on a leash if it goes outside of an enclosed area. For people who live in rural areas, they must keep their pets on their property but do not have to keep them on a leash.

Iowa law allows for a local board of health to declare that dogs be quarantined if it believes there is a threat of epidemic. In that case everyone who owns a dog in the quarantined area shall keep the animal securely enclosed or on a leash for the duration of the quarantine period.