Man Wonders If He Was Wrong To Report His Friend's Dog For Biting His Fiancé

All dogs can get a little rambunctious at times, but most don’t attack unprovoked. However, that’s not the experience that one couple had when they were at a friend’s party.

A dog belonging to a man’s friend almost bit his fiancé’s ear off.

The man explained that he and his fiancé went to a party at his friend's house a few weeks ago. “I’ve known [the friend] and his girlfriend for about a decade now, and we’ve been very close through the years,” he wrote in a Reddit post.

The man went on to tell readers about his friend’s dog, who has "shown issues with fear and aggression for his entire life." 

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The dog, which the couple adopted a few years ago, has repeatedly nipped other people, and "recently the nipping has gotten more and more frequent” — so much so that they were kicked out of their previous apartment due to his aggression. 

“There always seemed to be an excuse as to why they wouldn’t take him to a trainer or have him put on medication," the man continued, "even after I’ve offered to help.” 

The man explained that his partner hadn’t met the dog before, so "off the bat, the dog was anxious and standoffish." He tried feeding him some treats, which seemed to help.

“It wasn’t until a few hours later, when we were getting ready to leave, that my partner bent down to get his shoe that their dog lunged and got his ear,” he wrote. “Immediately, my friend grabbed him, and I checked my partner’s ear. It was bleeding heavily, and the slice went almost through the whole way.”

The fiancé was treated at the ER, where his partner filled out a bite report without knowing what it was.

Because of the severity of the bite, the man’s fiancé had to go to the emergency room.

“We rushed immediately to the ER, where my fiancé was given stitches to close the wound," he recalled. "They hand me a clipboard, and on it, I see that it’s a dog bite report. I’d already told the ER nurse what had happened, and without thinking, I filled it out with all the information I had.”

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Later on, the man realized what he had done. “It wasn’t until after that I Googled that I realized that it was more than an ER form and that it was an official bite report that would be reported to the health department,” he wrote.

Unfortunately, his friend didn’t take this very well and questioned why he filled out the bite report.

“I explained the situation, where my head had been, and that if I said I didn’t know the dog, they would have likely given my partner a rabies shot, which would have brought the bill even higher than the $600 it already was for nothing,” he said.

The outcomes of bite reports vary by location.

While bite reports are certainly a serious matter wherever they are filled out, the exact consequences of such a report differ depending on one’s location.

According to Bottlinger Law, a bite report typically leads to the dog being quarantined for ten days. In some cases, the dog’s owner can be fined. If the dog has a history of biting others, the consequences may be worse. 

It’s not clear exactly what the results of the bite report were in this case. Ultimately, the man did the right thing to protect his fiancé physically and financially. He can’t be blamed for that.

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.