Washington Animal at Large Attorney

If any person owning or having custody or control of a mischievous animal, knowing its propensities, willfully suffers it to go at large, or keeps it without ordinary care, and the animal, while so at large, or while not kept with ordinary care, kills or causes serious bodily injury to any human being who has taken all the precautions that the circumstances permitted, or which a reasonable person would ordinarily take in the same situation, is guilty of having an animal at large.

A mischievous animal is an animal that the owner knows could be dangerous, whether it be a wild animal being kept as a pet, like a monkey, or a traditionally domesticated animal such as a dog. An animal who is known to have vicious tendencies or is not safe to have around people who are not the owner, is a mischievous animal.

There are different punishments depending on what the injuries the person suffers are.  An example that most people think of when they hear about an animal at large is a dog getting out of a backyard and biting someone on the street. Another example could be a farmer’s cow gets out of the fenced pasture where it was being kept, a person driving a car hits the cow as it is on the road, and the person driving the car dies from injuries sustained during the accident.

As the definition of the crime can range so widely, it is important to have knowledgeable legal counsel who is familiar with the law and how to navigate the criminal justice system.