State Codes and Statutes
Statutes > Rhode-island > Title-4 > Chapter-4-13-1 > 4-13-1-7SECTION 4-13.1-7
§ 4-13.1-7 Action for damages –Destruction of offending vicious dog. – If any dog declared vicious under § 4-13.1-11, when unprovoked, kills orwounds, or assists in killing or wounding, any domestic animal, belonging to orin the possession of any person, or, when unprovoked, attacks, assaults, bites,or otherwise injures any human being or assists in attacking, assaulting,biting or otherwise injuring any human being while out of or within theenclosure of the owner or keeper of the vicious dog, or while otherwise on oroff the property of the owner or keeper whether or not the vicious dog was on aleash and securely muzzled or whether the vicious dog escaped without fault ofthe owner or keeper, the owner or keeper of the dog may be liable to the personaggrieved for all damage sustained, to be recovered in a civil action, withcosts of suit. It is rebuttably presumed as a matter of law that the owning,keeping, or harboring of a dog that has been declared vicious in violation ofthis chapter is a nuisance. It shall not be necessary, in order to sustain anyaction, to prove that the owner or keeper of a dog that has been declaredvicious knew that the dog that has been declared vicious possessed thepropensity to cause this damage or that the dog had a vicious nature.
