Bitten by a Dog?
The Owner Pays. Not You.

The actions you take in the hours and days following a dog bite can significantly affect both your physical recovery and the strength of your legal claim. The most important step is to seek medical attention as soon as possible, even if the wound appears minor. Dog bites carry a high risk of bacterial infection — including Pasteurella, Staphylococcus, and Streptococcus. Puncture wounds can drive bacteria deep into tissue where topical treatment cannot reach.

Delayed medical treatment not only increases the risk of serious complications such as cellulitis, abscess formation, and sepsis. It also gives the insurance company an argument that your injuries were not as severe as claimed.

Long Island has several excellent trauma centers that routinely treat dog bite injuries. These include Huntington Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip, and Stony Brook University Hospital. If the bite involves the face, hands, or any area near joints or tendons, request a referral to a plastic surgeon or hand specialist immediately. Early intervention by the right specialist can significantly improve long-term outcomes and minimize scarring.

Within 24 hours of the attack, report the bite to your local animal control authority. In Nassau County, dog bite reports are handled by the Nassau County Police Department’s Animal Section, which can be reached through the NCPD’s non-emergency line. In Suffolk County, reports should be filed with the Suffolk County SPCA, which serves as the primary animal control agency for the county.

Filing an official report is critical for several reasons. It creates a contemporaneous government record of the incident. It also triggers an investigation that may uncover prior complaints against the same animal. Additionally, it may lead to a dangerous dog hearing that generates additional evidence for your civil case. New York law requires that all dog bites be reported. Failure to report within the required timeframe can create gaps in the evidentiary record that the defense will exploit.

Documentation is the foundation of a strong dog bite claim. Photograph your injuries immediately after the attack and continue photographing them as they heal. The progression from fresh wound to scar tells a powerful visual story that juries respond to. Save every medical record, bill, and receipt related to your treatment. Keep a daily pain journal documenting your pain levels, limitations on daily activities, emotional state, sleep disturbances, and any impact on your work or personal life.

In addition, obtain contact information for any witnesses who saw the attack. If possible, identify the dog and its owner, take note of whether the dog was leashed or unleashed, and document the location where the attack occurred. If there are surveillance cameras in the area — common at parks, businesses, and residential complexes — note their locations. Footage may be overwritten within days if not preserved.

One of the most common mistakes dog bite victims make is giving a recorded statement to the dog owner’s homeowner’s insurance company without first consulting an attorney. Insurance adjusters are trained to ask questions designed to minimize your injuries or shift blame onto you. They may ask whether you provoked the dog, whether you were trespassing, or whether you sought medical attention immediately. Any answer you give can be used against you later.

You are under no legal obligation to provide a recorded statement. Doing so before you understand the full extent of your injuries and legal rights can severely damage your claim. Instead, contact a dog bite attorney as early as possible. Evidence in dog bite cases degrades quickly: witnesses forget details, surveillance footage gets deleted, and the dog owner may take steps to hide the animal’s history. An experienced attorney will preserve evidence, handle communications with the insurance company, and protect your rights from the outset.

Children are the most common victims of dog bite attacks in the United States. The data paints a stark picture of how vulnerable they are. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children between the ages of five and nine face the highest rate of dog bite-related emergency department visits of any age group. Children aged zero to four are close behind. Together, these two groups account for a disproportionate share of all reported dog bite injuries.

On Long Island, residential neighborhoods are home to hundreds of thousands of dogs across Nassau and Suffolk Counties. The proximity between young children and household pets — both their own family’s animals and those belonging to neighbors, relatives, and friends — creates daily opportunities for dangerous encounters. Unlike adult victims who may be bitten on the arms, hands, or legs while defending themselves, children are attacked in anatomical areas that carry far greater medical and cosmetic consequences.

The physical vulnerability of children to dog attacks stems from several interrelated factors. A child’s smaller stature means their face, head, and neck are at the same height as a medium or large dog’s mouth. This results in a dramatically higher proportion of facial and cranial bites compared to adult victims. The American Academy of Pediatrics has documented that more than half of all dog bite injuries in children under age ten involve the face, head, or neck — areas where lacerations can damage critical structures including the eyes, ears, nose, lips, and facial nerves.

Children also lack the physical strength and reflexes to push away an attacking animal or shield their vital areas. They may not understand the warning signs that a dog is about to bite — the bared teeth, the rigid posture, the growling, the fixed stare — signals that an adult would recognize as a cue to back away. Young children are naturally curious and may approach unfamiliar dogs, reach toward a dog’s face, or attempt to hug a dog. Any of these actions can trigger a defensive or aggressive response that the child had no ability to anticipate.

The psychological aftermath of a dog attack on a child can be as debilitating as the physical injuries themselves. In many cases, the emotional scars last far longer than the wounds heal. Children who are attacked by dogs frequently develop cynophobia — an intense, persistent fear of dogs. This fear can severely restrict their daily activities, limiting their ability to visit friends who own dogs, play in public parks, or walk through their own neighborhood.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is commonly diagnosed in child dog bite victims. Symptoms manifest as recurring nightmares, flashbacks triggered by encountering dogs or hearing barking, hypervigilance, and behavioral regression including bedwetting, clinginess, and refusal to attend school. These psychological injuries require professional treatment from child psychologists or psychiatrists experienced in trauma. The duration of therapy can extend for years as the child processes the event at different developmental stages.

Courts in New York fully recognize the compensability of these psychological injuries. Expert testimony from treating mental health professionals is essential to documenting the scope and duration of the child’s emotional suffering.

Scarring and disfigurement from dog bites affect children differently than adults because children’s bodies are still growing. A scar that appears manageable on a five-year-old’s face may stretch, distort, and become more prominent as the child’s facial bones grow through adolescence. As a result, a child who sustains facial scarring will almost certainly require multiple scar revision surgeries over their childhood and teenage years. Plastic surgeons must wait for the face to reach certain developmental milestones before performing additional corrective procedures. Each revision surgery carries its own risks, recovery period, and emotional toll.

Beyond the medical dimension, facial scarring during childhood has profound social and developmental consequences. Children with visible facial scars may face bullying, social isolation, diminished self-esteem, and difficulty forming peer relationships. These are critical years when social development shapes identity and emotional resilience. New York courts recognize these impacts as compensable elements of non-economic damages.

The legal framework for evaluating damages in child dog bite cases involves both the parents’ claims and the child’s own separate claim. Each addresses distinct categories of loss. Parents may recover the economic costs of the child’s medical treatment, including emergency care, surgical procedures, follow-up appointments, scar revision surgeries, physical therapy, and psychological counseling. Parents may also assert their own claim for emotional distress arising from witnessing the attack and from the ongoing burden of managing their child’s care.

The child’s own claim encompasses pain and suffering, emotional distress, scarring and disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. Because the child has a significantly longer expected lifespan than an adult victim, the non-economic damages calculation reflects decades of living with the consequences. New York courts consistently award higher non-economic damages in child dog bite cases for this reason.

When a child is injured by a dog on Long Island, our firm pursues both the parental claims and the child’s individual claims with equal vigor. We retain pediatric plastic surgeons, child psychologists, and life care planners who specialize in projecting the lifetime cost of care for injured children.