Dog Bite Accidents

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the number of dog bites requiring a hospital visit has increased 40 percent since 1998. Of those cases, the highest rate of individuals treated was between the ages of one and four. In 75 percent of the cases, the victim of the dog bite was familiar with the dog.

In Minnesota, if a dog, without provocation, attacks or injures any person who is acting peaceably in any place where the person may lawfully be, the owner of the dog is liable in damages to the person so attacked or injured to the full amount of the injury sustained.  The term "owner" includes any person harboring or keeping a dog but the owner shall be primarily liable.  The term "dog" includes both male and female of the canine species. 

See Minn.Stat.§347.22 (2006).