Category: Law

Doug Richards here for U.S. LawShield of Colorado. I want to talk to you today about an issue that has come up quite a bit lately and has become a problem for one of our U.S. LawShield Members in particular. That is, whether or not you can shoot a dog or another animal that is about to attack you or do you have to wait for the animal to actually attack you? It’s kind of a gray area in Colorado law.

Under Colorado law, there’s no specific statute that allows you to discharge a firearm on any animal that’s either attacking you or attacking your dog. But the law in Colorado would allow you to use self-defense, including deadly force to protect yourself or a third party from what you reasonably believe to be the use of deadly force by another person, or in this situation, an animal.

If you were walking in your neighborhood and a loose dog came out and was threatening you, you would be able to use deadly force to protect yourself against that animal, as long as it was reasonable under the circumstances. Now, you would not be able to articulate a reasonable explanation to law enforcement if you were just using deadly force or discharging your firearm to protect your own dog. However, if you could articulate that you were in fear that the attacking animal was going to turn its attention and aggression towards you, then you would be able to assert the use of deadly force in self-defense.

Now, there are other affirmative defenses you could use. There is no real necessity defense or affirmative defense in Colorado. Instead, we have something called the choice of evils. With the choice of evils defense, you’d be able to argue if you were being charged with a crime, that you really had no other choice under the circumstances but to employ the use of deadly force, or to shoot this animal that was coming after you or threatening to attack you.

In terms of what you could be charged with, there’s a litany of charges. You could be charged with illegal discharge of a firearm or displaying of a firearm. Depending on the facts, if you were displaying it to somebody else, you could potentially be charged with menacing. All of these bring either misdemeanor or felony range charges and, more importantly, as a collateral consequence you could lose your CCW privileges as result of this. And we’ve had situations where clients are acquitted or the charges are dismissed, and then we’ve got to go back to the sheriff and try to get their license back, their CCW back. And that can be more difficult than you would imagine because the sheriff isn’t necessarily bound by the same burden of proof that the DA is bound by, when they are trying to prove this. Whether or not you’ve done this or not in a criminal form.

Getting your license back with the Sheriff is an administrative process. The sheriffs in my experience, really take the offense reports and whatever’s been written in those offense reports as gospel. Make sure you contact us at U.S. LawShield or me directly at my office, always happy to talk to U.S. LawShield Members about this or anything else.

Can deadly force be used to protect yourself against an animal attack? The law of self-defense and the defense of others applies when you are faced with an animal attack. Virginia is a Stand Your Ground state. This means that if you did not start the fight or provoke the incident in any way, then you can stand your ground and defend yourself against your attacker without having to retreat. If you are without fault in provoking or bringing on the attack and you reasonably fear that you are in imminent danger of being killed or in imminent danger of great bodily harm and you use no more force than is reasonably necessary to protect yourself from the perceived harm or the attack under the circumstances as they appear to you, then your use of deadly force and self-defense is legally justified.

If you are involved in an event that requires you to defend yourself against an animal attack, which means you discharged your firearm, the odds are very high that it will be investigated by the authorities, and if it is investigated and they determine that it’s not self-defense, that you did not have a right to protect yourself, then you very well may be charged with something like cruelty to animals or the reckless handling of a firearm.

I have a dog. I love dogs. But something that comes up frequently is, “What do I do if a dog is attacking me, or my dog or loved one?”

Under Pennsylvania law, it is lawful for you to shoot a dog if it’s attacking you or another person or your domestic animal. If that’s the case then there is no crime, and you can put down the attacking dog.

The animal cruelty statute recently changed, however. I remember back when I started my career it was very narrow and very tough to prove, but it’s been massively expanded. So, it’s worth talking about to make sure that we know what the law is. This way we can stay on the right side of the law and know how prosecutors can potentially try to twist the situation.

I’ve handled an enormous number of murder cases. I will tell you that those are emotionally draining for everyone involved. But a death-of-a-dog case is even more so. I’ve seen people become quite distraught.

The aggravated cruelty to animals statute in Pennsylvania makes it a crime to torture an animal. That’s pretty straightforward. The statute also makes it a crime to intentionally, knowingly or recklessly engage in a course of conduct that is going to result in the death or serious bodily injury of an animal.

So, you can see how that might get twisted, or try to get twisted under certain circumstances, by some prosecutor … because maybe the owner of the dog is politically connected or is particularly vocal. We see that sometimes.

You need to be aware of those types of things. Most importantly, the bottom line is that if a dog is attacking you, another person, or your domestic animal, then you can use lethal, deadly force.

If you have any questions, please call U.S. LawShield and ask to speak to an Independent Program Attorney.

Do I have to let a dog bite me before using deadly force to protect myself? When can I shoot an attacking animal, and what crimes could I be charged with? Now, the most basic question, perhaps the most important that we have to answer with this topic, is can I legally use deadly force against an attacking animal?

Yes, you absolutely can. When it comes to the laws of the use of force and even deadly force to defend yourself, someone else, or property against an attacking animal in Georgia, the statutes are a mixture of different laws and they’re not contained in just one section of statutes. Recall that there is no general defense against animal statute in Georgia. We’re dealing with several different avenues where potentially you could be justified.

To begin with, the standard laws of justification would prevail. In other words, if you believe that you must act to prevent death or great bodily injury, then you would be justified potentially in the amount of force that you used against a potential animal attack.

Georgia has no dedicated self-defense or defense of others statute that deals with all animals. But statutes do exist that justify acts against animals in general, and more specifically, statutes that grant freedom from liability for acts committed against animals involved in specific conduct.

Now, you may be legally justified in using force or deadly force, as in firing a weapon, against an attacking animal if you reasonably believe that such act is necessary to defend against an imminent threat of injury or damage to any person, or animal, or property.

While the general theory of justification under the Official Code of Georgia Annotated 16-3-21 would apply to a defense of animal attack, the cruelty to animal statute or that subsection would discharge an individual of any criminal responsibility for the death of an animal after he or she shot that animal so long as that person felt it necessary to protect himself or herself from an imminent threat of injury.

Now, the code section also says this: a person who humanely injures or kills an animal under the circumstances indicated in this subsection shall incur no civil liability or criminal responsibility for such injury or death. That is the Official Code of Georgia Annotated 16-12-4(h)(3).

The law on permitted action appears to become broader when it pertains just specifically to dogs. While the justification provisions of the cruelty to animals statute that we just went through absolve an individual from criminal responsibility for the death of an animal when necessary against an imminent threat, the cruelty to dog statute arguably lowers the threshold for freedom from liability for killing a dog, only requiring a showing that an individual has defended his or her person or property from injury or damage. We’re talking about the Official Code of Georgia Annotated 4-8-5. This is the cruelty to dogs statute. Again, it arguably lowers the level of danger in order to respond, only requiring a showing that an individual has defended his or her property or person from injury or damage caused by a dog.

This is the language of that statute. No person shall perform a cruel act on any dog, nor shall any person harm, maim, or kill any dog or attempt to do so, except that a person may defend his or her person or property or the person or property of another from injury or damage being caused by a dog or kill any dog causing injury or damage to any livestock, poultry, or pet animal.

Can we protect ourselves from an animal attack? Yes. Under the general theory of justification, you can do so. Under the cruelty to animals statute, you can do so. And, under the cruelty to dogs statute, you can do so. General theories of justification when death or great bodily injury is perceived under the cruelty to animals statute when there is an imminent threat to person or property and under the cruelty to dogs statute when person or property may be potentially damaged, then you can protect yourself under any of those theories by the use of force or even deadly force. If you do so, your actions must be as humane as is possible under those circumstances, but you can protect yourself.

Now, if you are charged, you can be charged with cruelty to animals. You can be charged with cruelty to dogs. But under those specific statutes, there are subsections that grant you civil and criminal immunity if you act according to the law.