Senior Litigation Attorney, Edward Abraham joins East Coast Radio host, Deon G, to highlight the legal rights and responsibilities of pet owners in South Africa.
“There’s municipal bylaws that obviously regulate the keeping and control of animals and obviously, there’s national laws that also regulate this. But owners have the responsibility to keep their pets under control, properly secured on their property, and vaccinated and cared for. I think often enough, owners just think that they need to vaccinate and care for their dogs, take them to the vet, and that is about it but they also need to take the reasonable steps to prevent their dogs from causing harm to others and creating a nuisance in the community. Something like excessive barking and roaming dogs and aggressive behavior can also lead to complaints and possible action under the municipal bylaws.
A responsible pet owner has a responsibility to keep their pets under control. Keeping a dog on a chain or where necessary in a secure environment so that it doesn’t injure anyone is important. Now, I must also mention, and a lot of people don’t know this, but a person who’s been injured by a dog, for example, in certain circumstances have a right to claim compensation from that owner. I mean, it depends on the circumstances, obviously but this could include medical expenses, loss of income, and other damages that might arise from that injury.
This is why we say responsible ownership is so important. You know, if someone is visiting your home and you have a pet that you know that might be aggressive, or even if the pet is not aggressive, it’s a duty upon an owner to keep the pet away because you never know, dogs and pets are animals after all and you never know what they could react to. So, just simply leaving a dog and saying “my dog is not aggressive, they’ll be fine, just let that person come in”, if it’s a plumber, an electrician, or someone on your property, you have got to be more responsible with that and ensure that they are kept away, especially with people and strangers that pets may not know.”
Deon G: “Okay, so we’re going to take this on the other side now. So, what if somebody does come to someone’s house for some services, and they are bitten by someone’s pet? What can they do?”
“They could possibly have a claim against that owner for injury or medical expenses, for loss of earnings. This is common law, the owner would be entitled to compensate that person if they were injured by a dog. It sounds so serious, but yet it’s very important for us to know all these rules, right?… there’s not only civil implications, there’s also criminal implications.
So, a dog owner can be held criminally liable for the actions of their pets… you could be criminally charged if there is negligence…. there could even be orders for pets and dogs to be put down if they are too aggressive in a criminal sense.”
– sourced from transcript of live interview with East Coast Radio host, Deon G.
