Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en Yonkers
Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en Yonkers
On This Page
- Yonkers and Westchester County Dog Bite Statistics
- New York Dog Bite Law: Vicious Propensities and the 2025 Negligence Change
- Yonkers Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
- Yonkers Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
- What To Do After a Yonkers Dog Bite
- Yonkers Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
- How To Report a Dog Bite in Yonkers
- Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Yonkers Dog Bite
- Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Westchester County
- Compensation for Yonkers Dog Bite Victims
- Comparative Fault in New York Dog Bite Cases
- Statute of Limitations for Yonkers Dog Bite Cases
- Homeowner and Renter Insurance for Yonkers Dog Bites
- Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your Yonkers Case
- Preguntas frecuentes
- Two Routes: Since April 17, 2025, a New York victim can sue on strict liability for a dog's known vicious propensities, on ordinary negligence, or on both in the same case.
- Report Locally: Westchester County says all animal bites must be reported to the local or county health officer as soon as possible, and publishes 914-813-5000 as answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Six Foot Leash: Yonkers City Code section 65-8 bars letting a dog run at large in any public place unless it is restrained by a chain or leash no longer than six feet.
- At Large Presumption: Section 65-9 makes proof that a dog was at large presumptive evidence that the person it is registered to, or who harbors it, allowed it to be loose.
- Local Insurance Rule: Yonkers requires a dangerous animal to hold a special city license backed by proof of insurance of not less than $100,000.
- Nearest Trauma Center: The state trauma list carries no hospital in Yonkers, so the county entry is Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, a state-designated Level I adult and Level I pediatric trauma center.
- Three Years: You generally have three years from the date of the bite, but only 90 days to serve a sworn notice of claim if a public entity is involved.
- Fault Reduces Only: In a dog bite claim New York applies pure comparative fault, so being found partly at fault lowers what you recover instead of ending the claim.
A dog bite in Yonkers turns an ordinary afternoon into wound care, missed work, and bills you did not plan for. New York gives you two ways to hold a dog’s owner responsible: strict liability, where the owner knew or should have known the dog was dangerous, and ordinary negligence, available again since April 2025, where the owner failed to contain the dog with reasonable care. Both are set out on our New York dog bite law page.
This page covers the local side: the Yonkers leash and dangerous dog rules, how Westchester County and the city shelter handle a bite and the ten day rabies observation, who to call, where the nearest state-designated trauma center is, and the deadlines that decide whether you have a case.
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack injuries. If you were bitten in Yonkers, talk to us for free. There is no fee unless we win.
Yonkers and Westchester County Dog Bite Statistics
We have not found a published count of dog bites in Yonkers or in Westchester County. That does not mean bites go unrecorded. The county health department takes animal bite reports and runs the rabies follow-up, and says more than 1,200 animal bites are reported to it each year, though it does not break that figure out by species or attach a year to it. A Yonkers police report on an animal bite routes a copy to the dog control officer at the city shelter. The county also maintains a Dangerous Dog Registry listing dogs a judge has found dangerous.
Two other published numbers help, read for what they are. New York City runs its own health department, and its dog bite dataset recorded 5,049 reported bites in 2025. That is a New York City figure, not a Yonkers one. Statewide, the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm counted 1,308 New York homeowners insurance claims for dog-related injuries in 2025, averaging $92,154, the highest average of any state. Those are insurance claims, and that table’s footnote says they include other dog-related injuries such as fractures, so they are not a bite count.
New York Dog Bite Law: Vicious Propensities and the 2025 Negligence Change
New York has no statute that makes an owner pay simply because a dog bit someone. Its court-made rule changed recently enough that much of what you will read online is wrong.
Route one, strict liability. If the owner knew or should have known the dog had vicious propensities, the owner is strictly liable for the harm that propensity caused, and careful handling is no defense. You do not need a prior bite. New York’s high court has said evidence that a dog growled, snapped or bared its teeth can raise the question, and so can how the dog was restrained, whether it was kept as a guard dog, and any behavior showing a proclivity to put others at risk. The Court of Appeals has called the one bite label a misnomer.
Route two, ordinary negligence. On April 17, 2025, in Flanders v Goodfellow, the Court of Appeals overruled its 2006 decision in Bard v Jahnke to the extent Bard barred a negligence claim against the owner of a domestic animal. Since then a victim can also prove the owner failed to use reasonable care. If you were told before 2025 that New York gave you no negligence claim, that answer may no longer be right.
One statute is cited more than it deserves. Agriculture and Markets Law 123(10) makes the owner of a dangerous dog strictly liable for medical costs and nothing else.
Yonkers Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
New York has no statewide leash law. Agriculture and Markets Law 122 leaves the rules on keeping dogs and dogs running at large to each municipality, so the Yonkers rules are the ones that matter.
Leashing. City Code section 65-8 bars anyone owning, harboring or keeping a dog from letting it be at large in any public place in Yonkers unless it is restrained by a chain or leash no longer than six feet. Section 65-10 makes a dog a nuisance when it injures or threatens injury to a person. The provision that helps a victim most is section 65-9: proof that a dog was at large is presumptive evidence that the person it is registered to, or who harbors it, allowed it.
Dangerous dogs. Yonkers defines a dangerous dog more broadly than state law. Under section 65-1 a dog qualifies if it menaces a person in a dangerous or terrorizing manner in public, has a known propensity to attack unprovoked, or bites a person or domestic animal without provocation. Such a dog must hold a special city license backed by proof of insurance of not less than $100,000, and section 65-6 adds fencing, leash and muzzle requirements.
Licensing. Dogs living in Yonkers must be licensed with the city, through the City Clerk on a published number of 914-377-6020, and the tag stays on the collar off the owner’s premises. No New York municipality may run a dangerous dog program that singles out a breed.
Yonkers Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
Animal control runs through the Yonkers Animal Shelter, which sits under the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation and houses the city’s dog control officer. Its published number is 914-377-6730. Rabies follow-up is not a city function. It belongs to the Westchester County Department of Health, on 914-813-5000.
After a bite the dog goes into a ten day observation period. The state health department puts it precisely: a dog that has potentially exposed a person to rabies is confined under the direction of the county health department and observed for ten days, and if the animal remains healthy during that period, the animal did not transmit rabies at the time of the bite. State law allows that confinement at the owner’s home only if the county approves, and otherwise it is served at the owner’s expense at a shelter, a veterinary office or a kennel.
Westchester also requires every dog, cat and ferret four months of age or older in the county to be vaccinated against rabies. Rabies is overwhelmingly a wildlife problem in New York: outside New York City in 2025 the state laboratory tested 682 dogs and none was positive. If the dog’s shots cannot be confirmed, read about being bitten by an unvaccinated dog.
What To Do After a Yonkers Dog Bite
Take these in order. The first few protect your health. The rest protect your claim.
- Get away from the dog and call 911 if anyone is seriously hurt or the dog is still loose.
- Wash the wound. The CDC advises washing any wound immediately with soap and water for 15 minutes.
- Get medical care the same day. A face or hand bite, a deep puncture, or any bite to a child belongs in an emergency department.
- Call the Westchester County Department of Health at 914-813-5000. That starts the rabies follow-up and creates the county record.
- Get the owner’s name and phone number, and ask whether the dog’s rabies vaccination is current.
- Ask the Yonkers police to take a report. It creates a city record and routes a copy to the dog control officer at the shelter.
- Photograph everything: the wounds over several days, the fence, any warning sign, and where the dog got out.
- Write down who else was there. Neighbors, delivery drivers and dog walkers are the witnesses who win New York cases.
- Keep the paperwork: discharge instructions, prescriptions and proof of missed work.
- Do not give the owner’s insurer a recorded statement before you talk to a lawyer.
Watch for the warning signs of a dog bite infection, which is the complication that catches people out.
Yonkers Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
The New York State Department of Health’s trauma center list, page revised July 2026, carries no hospital in Yonkers. The single Westchester County entry is Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, listed as a state-designated Level I adult trauma center and a state-designated Level I pediatric trauma center. Its published main number is 914-493-7000. In practice, a Yonkers attack severe enough to need trauma care is a transfer out of the city.
Most bites do not need a trauma center. They need a wound cleaned properly and put on the record. Go to an emergency department if the wound is deep, will not stop bleeding, is on the face, hand or a joint, or is on a child. Urgent care can clean a shallow bite and check your tetanus status. Either way, ask that the chart record what bit you and what the wound looked like, which is why medical evidence in a dog bite claim matters from day one.
How To Report a Dog Bite in Yonkers
Reporting outside New York City runs through the county. The Westchester County Department of Health says all animal bites are required by New York Public Health Law to be reported to the local or county health officer as soon as possible, and tells a bitten person to call 914-813-5000, a line it publishes as answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The county’s bite report form has a fax route, but the county directs that route to your health care provider or emergency room staff, so report by phone. Its guidance is on the county’s rabies and animal bite page.
- Yonkers Police Department. The city publishes 914-377-7900 as the Police Department’s phone number, and a direct emergency line at 914-377-7777 for mobile callers. Use 911 for an attack in progress.
- Yonkers Animal Shelter, 914-377-6730. The city’s dog control officer works out of the shelter.
- Westchester County Department of Public Safety, 914-864-7700. The county police agency publishes this as its headquarters number, for an incident outside city limits.
Ask for the report or case number and how to get a copy. Under the police department’s published animal complaint procedure, a bite generates an incident report, a copy reaches the dog control officer at the shelter, a bite report goes to the county, the owner is told to confine the dog for ten days, and an owner whose dog was unlicensed or at large can be cited. If you witnessed the attack, Agriculture and Markets Law 123 also requires the officer to tell you that you can start a dangerous dog case, and to start one if there is reason to believe the dog is dangerous. See what happens after a dog bite is reported.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Yonkers Dog Bite
More than one person is often responsible, and that usually means more than one insurance policy. Start with the registered owner, on either route above, but New York defines an owner broadly: under Agriculture and Markets Law 108 an owner is anyone who harbors or keeps a dog, and harboring means providing food or shelter.
- Housemates and family who care for the dog. A New York appellate court has held co-tenants can be strictly liable for an attack by a dog owned by another co-tenant where they joined in harboring it. See what determines ownership of a dog.
- Whoever was handling the dog, such as a walker, a sitter or a relative with the leash.
- A landlord who knew a dog was kept there, knew or should have known it was dangerous, and could have removed or confined it. Since 2025 a landlord can also face a negligence claim.
- A managing agent or property manager. What an agent knew can count as what the owner knew, so complain in writing. A verbal complaint to an unnamed employee has not always been enough in court.
- A business that had custody of the dog. A veterinary clinic can be sued in ordinary negligence on its own. Groomers, kennels and trainers are not settled law in New York, but may owe their own duty.
- A public entity. A housing authority sued as the building owner is judged by ordinary property rules, while a city sued for failing to enforce its animal laws is usually not liable without a special duty to you.
Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Westchester County
Most Yonkers dog bite claims are resolved with the owner’s insurer and never see a courtroom. When a case has to be brought, New York’s trial court of general jurisdiction is called the Supreme Court, and the Westchester County branch hears it. It has no dollar ceiling, so any case involving surgery, permanent scarring or a child belongs there. Smaller money claims can go to Yonkers City Court, which handles civil claims up to $15,000 and small claims up to $5,000.
The work that decides the case happens earlier. Your lawyer gathers the county bite report and the rabies confinement record, the shelter file on that dog, every earlier complaint about the dog or the address, and any earlier dangerous dog case. See how to file a dog bite claim.
Compensation for Yonkers Dog Bite Victims
New York puts no dollar cap on what a dog bite victim can recover. An appellate court can raise or lower an award that deviates materially from reasonable compensation, which is why no honest lawyer quotes you a number in the first week. Our dog bite settlement calculator shows the moving parts, and our page on the average dog bite settlement in New York explains why averages mislead.
- All past medical and dental care, including the emergency visit, wound care, antibiotics and rabies treatment if given.
- Future reconstructive and revision surgery. In a child, scar revision is often staged over years and may not start until growth is finished.
- Psychological treatment. Fear of dogs, nightmares and sleep problems are real and treatable, and worth documenting. See emotional trauma after a dog attack.
- Lost wages and lost earning capacity, including a parent’s time off to care for an injured child.
- Pain and suffering, with disfigurement and scarring counted separately, and loss of enjoyment of life.
Health insurance payments come off the economic part of a verdict, subtracted by the judge after the jury has heard the full bills, and the defense has to prove what was covered. Money raised for you by family, a church or an online fundraiser is protected by statute and is not subtracted. Note that the dangerous dog statute’s civil penalties are penalties, not damages paid to you.
Comparative Fault in New York Dog Bite Cases
In a dog bite claim New York is a pure comparative fault state. If a jury decides part of what happened was your own fault, your award is reduced by that percentage and nothing more. There is no cutoff share that ends a dog bite claim, so a victim found mostly at fault still recovers something.
It is also not your job to prove you were careful. Fault claimed against you is a defense the dog owner has to raise and prove. Bite victims blame themselves constantly, for petting the dog, for walking past the yard. If you were doing something ordinary, or if you are a child, the defense usually has little to work with. Expect the word provocation anyway, since the dangerous dog statute treats a dog’s conduct as justified where the person was tormenting or physically threatening it. Understand what provocation actually means first.
Statute of Limitations for Yonkers Dog Bite Cases
New York gives a bite victim three years from the date of the bite for an ordinary claim against a dog owner, a landlord or a business. Evidence in dog cases disappears faster than that, and the deadlines that actually ruin New York cases are the short ones.
- Three years from the bite for an ordinary claim against a private owner, landlord or business.
- Two years from the date of death in a fatal attack, and the claim belongs to the estate’s representative.
- 90 days to serve a sworn written notice of claim if a city, county, town, village, school district, housing authority or other public corporation is involved, and only one year and ninety days to bring the lawsuit.
- 90 days to bring a claim, or to serve a written notice of intention, if the State of New York is involved.
- A child’s own deadline is different and usually longer, but a parent’s own claim and any deadline against a public entity may not be.
None of these pauses the clocks: not the rabies observation, not the animal control case, not a criminal charge, and not an adjuster who says the file is under review. Read about the dog bite statute of limitations early rather than late.
Homeowner and Renter Insurance for Yonkers Dog Bites
In the ordinary Yonkers case the money comes from the dog owner’s homeowners or renters policy, under the personal liability coverage, with an umbrella policy on top in serious cases. The Insurance Information Institute describes typical liability limits of $100,000 to $300,000, and says the owner is personally responsible for anything above the limit.
New York does not require a dog owner to carry liability insurance. A court that finds a dog dangerous may order coverage, capped by statute at $100,000. And Yonkers goes further on its own: a dangerous animal license requires proof of insurance of not less than $100,000, so there may be a policy and a city file recording it.
New York also restricts breed-based underwriting. Insurance Law 3421 bars a homeowners insurer from refusing, canceling, surcharging or limiting coverage based solely on owning a dog of a specific breed or mixture of breeds. An insurer may act on a particular dog’s designation as dangerous under Agriculture and Markets Law 123, but not on breed alone, so do not assume there is no coverage. And never sign a release before a treating surgeon has said what the final scar will look like and whether revision surgery is coming.
Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your Yonkers Case
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack injuries, which is narrower than general injury work and it shows in the details. We know which Westchester and Yonkers records exist, how to ask for the county bite report and the rabies confinement file, and how to reach the neighbor who already knew the dog was trouble. New York cases turn on notice, and notice lives in other people’s memories.
On a Yonkers case we pull the county and city records and every prior complaint about that dog, find the witnesses early, identify every possible defendant and policy, and deal with the insurer for you. You can read about founder Michael Agruss, and we also help victims in Buffalo and Syracuse. The consultation is free and there is no fee unless we win. Contact us when you are ready.
Preguntas frecuentes
Call 911 if the dog is still loose or someone is badly hurt. Otherwise ask the Yonkers Police Department to take a report, using 914-377-7900, which the city publishes as the Police Department's number, or 914-377-7777 as a direct emergency line from a mobile phone. Under the department's published animal complaint procedure officers try to identify the dog and its owner, and the report routes a copy to the dog control officer at the Yonkers Animal Shelter and a bite report to the county health department. Also call Westchester County at 914-813-5000.
Make the call yourself. Westchester County says all animal bites are required by New York Public Health Law to be reported to the local or county health officer as soon as possible, and it tells a bitten person to call 914-813-5000, a line it publishes as answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The county's bite report form has a fax route, but the county directs that route to your health care provider or emergency room staff, not to you. A phone call from you is the reliable way to start the report.
It matters a great deal. Yonkers requires a dangerous animal to hold a special city license, which carries a $50 application fee on top of the ordinary fee and requires proof of insurance of not less than $100,000. So there may be a policy and a city record naming it. The same local rules require an eight foot fence, a metal leash no longer than four feet in public and an approved muzzle, and a dangerous dog seen in public without its city tag is presumed unlicensed and uninsured. Whether those rules were followed is central evidence.
Partly. Westchester County maintains a Dangerous Dog Registry listing dogs a judge has found dangerous under New York law, and the owner of such a dog is required to report it to the local municipal clerk. The county says residents may call it at 914-813-5000 for information about the registry, and that questions on reporting and enforcement go to your local police department. You cannot add a dog yourself. Your report is the first step toward a dog being declared dangerous, and your lawyer can pull the underlying records.
Several things. Children are bitten on the face, scalp and neck far more often than adults, so scarring and later revision surgery dominate the claim. A child's own deadline to sue is different and usually longer, but a parent's separate claim and any deadline against a public entity may run on a much shorter clock, so get both confirmed. Fault arguments against a young child rarely go far. And a child's scar keeps changing as the child grows, which is the main reason not to settle early.
Yes, in almost every case. A settlement closes the claim for good, including the surgery nobody has scheduled yet. Scar maturation takes months, and in children it can take a year or more and change again with growth. Wait until a treating surgeon can say what the final scar will look like and whether revision surgery is needed, and make sure that opinion is in writing. If money is the pressure, that is a reason to talk to a lawyer about options, not a reason to sign.
No. You are not required to give the other side's insurer a recorded statement, and there is rarely a benefit in doing it early. Adjusters ask about what you did in the seconds before the bite, because New York reduces an award by whatever share of fault is assigned to you. An offhand sentence about reaching toward the dog can turn into a provocation argument. Report the bite to the county and the police, keep your own records, and let a lawyer handle contact with the insurer.
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