Tag Archives: animal law

A Chicago-area man is suing a woman for $100,000, claiming that her cat attacked him in 2011. William Baxter filed the suit last month against Christine Bobak, alleging that the animal “viciously attacked, bit and clawed” him while he was taking care of it.  Illinois law lays out the manner in which the lawsuit can proceed. “There are two avenues of liability,” explains Joseph Klest, a personal injury attorney with the Klest Injury Law Firm in Illinois. “It’s the same with …

Each decade has its “dangerous dog.” In the 1970s, it was Doberman pinschers. In the 1980s, it was German shepherds. In the 1990s, it was Rottweilers. Today, it’s pit bull terriers. Pit bulls were bred, originally in England, to combine the gameness of terrier breeds with the strength and athleticism of bulldog breeds. The term usually includes American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, Staffordshire terriers and any crosses among the three.   Pet or Pariah? When properly exercised, trained …

Seniors More Likely to Face Foreclosure While the mortgage crisis seems to have fallen out of the news, seniors in particular are still reeling from its effects. Caught in a cycle of decreasing income but increasing expenses, the elderly have proven especially vulnerable to foreclosures. Find Out More…   Drillers Hose Texas Landowners with Fast & Dirty Fracking Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”—a method of oil and gas extraction—is already controversial because of charges that the process is harmful to the …

Landlords in California can no longer force tenants to declaw or devocalize their pets as a condition of renting a property, thanks to a new anti-cruelty law. Property owners can still ban animals from a dwelling outright; however the days of allowing only clawless cats and barkless dogs are over. The legislation passed in September stems from objections over surgical procedures that might cut down on property damage or noise complaints, but can be painful and cause permanent damage to …

Traditionally, divorce-court judges determining custody usually rule that any pets in the household will follow the children. But what happens if there are no children? Increasingly, pets themselves are the subject of custodial disputes in divorce proceedings, according to Kenneth P. Altshuler, a Portland, Maine, divorce attorney who is the current president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. In 2006, AAML conducted a survey of its members and found that they had seen a marked increase in pet custody cases …