Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en San Antonio
Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en San Antonio
On This Page
- San Antonio and Bexar County Dog Bite Statistics
- Texas Dog Bite Law: The One Bite Rule and Negligence
- San Antonio Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
- San Antonio Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
- What To Do After a San Antonio Dog Bite
- San Antonio Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
- How To Report a Dog Bite in San Antonio
- Who Can Be Held Responsible for a San Antonio Dog Bite
- Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Bexar County
- Compensation for San Antonio Dog Bite Victims
- Proportionate Responsibility in Texas Dog Bite Cases
- Statute of Limitations for San Antonio Dog Bite Cases
- Homeowner and Renter Insurance for San Antonio Dog Bites
- Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your San Antonio Case
- Preguntas frecuentes
- No Regular Bite Count: Animal Care Services does not carry a dog bite total in its monthly Asilomar reports, its quarterly performance reports, or its Core Metrics report. Bite and scratch case counts have been presented to the City Council Public Safety Committee, most recently in the May 2026 briefing on ACS performance metrics. We have not found a statewide Texas bite count.
- Not Strict Liability: Texas has no dog bite statute, so a San Antonio claim runs on the owner's knowledge of the dog or on how the dog was handled.
- First Bite Cases: A dog with no bite history can still support a claim, because the negligence route asks about the owner's conduct.
- Report Through 311: Animal Care Services tells anyone who has been bitten to call 311 immediately, at 3-1-1 or 210-207-6000, so it can capture and quarantine the animal.
- 240 Hour Quarantine: The city counts the observation period as 240 hours from the time of the bite, and home confinement takes four conditions plus approval.
- Mandatory Sterilization: San Antonio requires a dog that bit without provocation, or while free of restraint, to be sterilized within 30 days after quarantine.
- Tiered Aggressive Dogs: San Antonio classifies aggressive dogs at levels 1, 2 and 3, a local designation with no state equivalent.
- Ninety Day Notice: The city charter requires written notice of a claim against San Antonio within 90 days, far shorter than the two year deadline for a private owner.
If a dog bit you in San Antonio, the first thing to know is that Texas dog bite law gives you no automatic claim. Texas has no strict liability dog bite statute. What decides your case is what the owner knew about that dog and how the owner was handling it.
This page covers what Animal Care Services does and does not publish, the city’s leash and tethering rules, the quarantine and the sterilization rule that follows a bite, San Antonio’s trauma centers, how reports go through 311, who can be responsible, and your deadlines.
Dog Bite Laws takes dog attack cases only. The consultation is free, and there is no fee unless we recover money for you.
San Antonio and Bexar County Dog Bite Statistics
San Antonio’s monthly shelter intake reports, quarterly performance reports and Core Metrics report do not carry a dog bite total. Animal Care Services, the city department that handles bites, has presented bite and scratch case counts to the City Council Public Safety Committee, so a San Antonio number usually traces back to those briefings rather than to a standing report. We have not found a Bexar County figure or a statewide Texas count.
The closest official figure the city publishes sits in its monthly shelter report, under intake for quarantine. In the report covering August 2026, Animal Care Services took in 136 animals for quarantine in the field and another 43 over the counter. Read that as animals brought in for rabies observation, not as a count of people bitten.
The one statewide Texas measure that exists is an insurance measure. The Insurance Information Institute counted 1,313 Texas dog related injury claims in 2025, averaging $70,885 against a national average of $65,450. That is a statewide insurance figure, not a San Antonio one, and it includes injuries such as fractures rather than bites alone.
Texas Dog Bite Law: The One Bite Rule and Negligence
There is no Texas dog bite statute and no statewide leash law. Nothing makes a dog’s owner automatically responsible for a bite. A San Antonio claim is built on the common law instead.
Route one is the one bite rule, from Marshall v. Ranne. If the owner knew, or should have known, that the dog had dangerous tendencies abnormal for a dog, the owner answers for what it did. A prior bite proves that fastest, but so do earlier complaints to Animal Care Services, an aggressive dog classification, or the way the dog was kept.
Route two is ordinary negligence and negligent handling, and it needs no history at all. It asks what the owner did. Was the dog unrestrained, was the gate latched, had it gotten out before, and did the owner do anything once the dog had hold of you. Texas treats that last one as a duty even for a dog nobody thought was dangerous, so the phrase one bite rule should not make you assume you have nothing.
Keep the tracks separate. Chapter 822 and the city’s dangerous and aggressive dog rules are criminal and administrative. They decide what happens to the dog, not what you are paid. The civil claim is yours to bring.
San Antonio Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
Texas leaves restraint rules to cities, so the rule that applies is chapter 5 of the San Antonio City Code. Section 5-19 is the leash requirement: an owner or keeper shall not walk an animal without a leash restraint, and must keep the animal in the public right of way rather than on someone else’s yard or driveway.
Section 5-20 controls tethering and is unusually detailed. A tied dog needs a properly fitted leather or nylon collar or harness that is not a choker, a tying device at least ten feet long with a swivel at each end, and at least 150 square feet of unobstructed space. The ordinance bars an unattended tether made primarily of chain or carrying weights, and forbids tethering a puppy, a sick or injured animal, or a female dog in season.
The penalties are real. A general chapter 5 violation carries a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $2,000, rising to a minimum of $500 on a second conviction. Violating the dangerous dog owner requirements carries a minimum of $500 for a first offense.
San Antonio issues no dog license. It requires a registered microchip before four months of age, a tag worn outdoors with the microchip number or the owner’s contact information, and rabies vaccination meeting state law. A violation is evidence, not an automatic verdict.
San Antonio Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
Animal Care Services is a City of San Antonio department and the local rabies control authority for the city. It assigns a State of Texas certified animal care officer to bite cases and requires all rabies exposures to be reported immediately.
The ordinance also puts duties on the owner. Under section 5-126(c) the owner must give you, or a bitten child’s parent, their name and address, the animal’s microchip registration and the date of its last rabies vaccination, report the same to the director within 24 hours, and surrender the animal for quarantine on request.
Section 5-127(a) requires the owner to surrender the animal to the Animal Care Services facility, or another approved quarantine facility, for observation of no more than ten days, and the city states that period as 240 hours from the time of the bite. Home quarantine is the exception and takes all four of these: secure facilities approved by the director, a dog currently vaccinated when it bit, a dog not in violation of any law or ordinance at the time, and observation by the director, the city veterinarian or a licensed veterinarian on at least the first and last days.
San Antonio adds a consequence most cities do not. Under section 5-127(f), a dog that bites without provocation, or while free of restraint, must be sterilized within 30 days after the quarantine period. State law also makes the owner pay for the quarantine.
If the dog is alive and clinically normal at the end of the 240 hours, the state’s position is that it could not have exposed you to rabies in that bite. Your doctor and the health department decide about rabies treatment much sooner. See bitten by an unvaccinated dog.
Unincorporated Bexar County is served by Bexar County Animal Control at 210-335-9000, Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with after hours bite reports going to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office at 210-335-6000.
What To Do After a San Antonio Dog Bite
Animal Care Services publishes its own order of operations, and it puts the call first so the animal can be captured. Here is that sequence with what a claim needs added.
- Call 311, or 210-207-6000, immediately so Animal Care Services can capture and quarantine the animal.
- Describe the animal when you call: color, breed, and the owner’s name and contact information if you have it.
- Wash the wound thoroughly with soap and hot water, which is the city’s own first aid instruction.
- See a physician as soon as possible, so someone qualified decides whether you need rabies treatment.
- Photograph the wound, your clothing, the gate and any tether before anything is repaired.
- Write down what the owner did during the attack, and collect witness names and numbers on the spot.
- Keep every bill and explanation of benefits, because Texas ties your medical recovery to what was actually paid or owed.
- Say nothing recorded to the owner’s insurer, and sign nothing, until you have advice.
For a child, a bite to the face, scalp or hands belongs in an emergency department, and nothing should be settled until the scarring has had time to mature.
San Antonio Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
Bexar County has two state designated Level I trauma centers, with a ring of Level III and Level IV centers around them.
- University Hospital. State designated Level I (Comprehensive) trauma center. The health system labels its number as main, 210-358-4000.
- Brooke Army Medical Center. State designated Level I (Comprehensive) trauma center.
- CHRISTUS Children’s. Carried on the state trauma list at Level III (Advanced) with a probationary designation status, and a dedicated pediatric hospital. 210-704-2011.
- Methodist Hospital. Carried at Level III (Advanced) with a probationary designation status. 210-575-4000.
Urgent care is fine for a shallow bite that has stopped bleeding. Use an emergency department for a deep or bleeding wound, a bite to the face, a hand or a joint, a bite from a dog whose vaccination status is unknown, or a child with more than a scratch. Spreading redness or fever in the days afterward means go back the same day. Tell the staff it was a dog bite, and which dog and where, so the chart records it.
How To Report a Dog Bite in San Antonio
Animal Care Services states the rule plainly: state law requires all animal bites or scratches breaking skin to be reported to the local rabies control authority, and it is that authority for the city. Section 5-126(a) says any person who knows of a bite or scratch here must report it immediately to 311 or to the director.
- 311, or 210-207-6000. The route for a resident who was bitten. Animal Care Services asks a bitten resident to call so the animal can be picked up quickly. The city’s 311 portal also takes an animal bite request online.
- The Animal Care Services bite investigation team. An email route for a veterinary clinic or medical facility reporting a bite, not for a victim.
- San Antonio Police Department non-emergency, 210-207-7273.
- Bexar County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency dispatch, 210-335-6000.
- 911. For an attack in progress or an injury that needs an ambulance.
San Antonio runs two determinations, one tracking the state dangerous dog law and one of its own, and both start with a sworn affidavit rather than a phone call. A dangerous dog complaint must describe the incident, the date and location, the owner’s name and address, and the dogs involved. The department notifies the owner within five working days, and the owner may appeal under the state statute.
The second is the city’s tiered aggressive dog designation, which has no state equivalent. Level 1 covers a dog that, from inside its enclosure, makes someone reasonably believe it will attack and cause injury, or an unrestrained dog that menaces or chases a domestic animal. Level 2 is an unrestrained dog that physically injures a domestic animal or livestock. Level 3 is one that kills one, or a level 2 dog that repeats after notice. The owner has 15 days to appeal to municipal court, and the department can require restraint, microchipping, sterilization and $100,000 in liability coverage, with muzzling and warning signs required at level 3. What happens after a dog bite is reported covers the rest, and the city’s bite instructions are on sa.gov.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for a San Antonio Dog Bite
Every Texas claim starts with proving who owned or possessed the dog, and possession reaches further than people expect. In one case a judgment ran against the couple who owned the dog and the house and also against their adult son, who was staying there.
- The owner, and often more than one. When two adults both own the dog, each can carry a share.
- Whoever had custody or control that day. A sitter, walker, roommate, relative, kennel or trainer can be a possessor.
- A business with a dog on site. Texas has held a company responsible for a chained guard dog, reasoning that how it kept the dog charged it with knowing the dog was dangerous.
- An apartment owner or property manager. A bite in a common area the landlord controlled runs on actual or imputed knowledge, which prior complaints to the leasing office can establish. A bite inside a tenant’s unit, with the landlord out of possession, requires proof of actual knowledge.
- A public entity. A city, county or school district dog brings short notice deadlines and statutory caps.
Do not count on the parent liability statute. Texas Family Code chapter 41 covers property damage caused by a child, not personal injury, so it does not reach a bite. Parents come into a case because they housed and controlled the dog, or own the home the policy is written on. See what determines ownership of a dog.
Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Bexar County
Bexar County has civil district courts, county courts at law and justice of the peace courts in four precincts, and the size of the claim decides which would hear it. A justice court handles claims up to $20,000. A county court at law goes to $325,000 for a case filed on or after December 4, 2025. Anything larger, or any case with surgery, permanent scarring or a child victim, belongs in district court.
Your lawyer handles the court side. Your part is narrower and more useful.
- Get treated and keep going back, because gaps in treatment are the first thing an adjuster points at.
- Keep the bills, the explanation of benefits statements, and a log of missed work.
- Report through 311 so Animal Care Services opens a file, and name your witnesses in a written statement.
- Photograph the wound weekly as it heals. Nobody can go back and take those later.
- Decline a recorded statement to the owner’s insurer, and sign no release.
- Call early, while the dog is still identifiable and the records still exist.
How to file a dog bite claim walks through what happens next.
Compensation for San Antonio Dog Bite Victims
Economic losses are the measurable ones: emergency treatment, surgery and later scar revision, dental and eye repair, rabies treatment, physical therapy, counseling, missed pay and reduced earning capacity. Texas limits what you recover for medical care to the amount actually paid or owed rather than the amount first billed, so the explanation of benefits is the document that proves the claim.
Non-economic losses are written into Texas law as separate items a jury answers separately: physical pain and mental anguish, disfigurement, physical impairment, inconvenience and loss of enjoyment of life. Texas caps these only in medical malpractice cases, and disfigurement stands on its own line. The psychological side counts too, and emotional trauma after a dog attack is a real element rather than an afterthought.
Exemplary damages punish and are unusual. They take clear and convincing proof of gross negligence, such as an owner who already knew the dog was classified and let it run anyway.
Nobody can price your case from a web page. The dog bite settlement calculator gives you a frame to think in, not a forecast.
Proportionate Responsibility in Texas Dog Bite Cases
Texas does not just shave a percentage off your recovery for your own share of the blame. It ends the case at a point. Civil Practice and Remedies Code chapter 33 bars a claimant found more than 50 percent responsible from recovering anything. Fifty percent still recovers half. Fifty one percent recovers nothing.
Below that line the math is simple. On a case a jury values at $100,000, a claimant found 25 percent responsible takes $75,000. At 50 percent it is $50,000. One more point and it is zero.
That cliff is what makes provocation arguments worth the defense’s time. Texas has no statute making provocation a defense to a civil claim. The word unprovoked lives in the dangerous dog law and in the city’s aggressive dog levels, where it decides what happens to the dog. In your case it becomes a number the defense asks a jury to put next to your name. Dog bite provocation covers what counts, and nothing about your conduct reaches a jury without real evidence.
Statute of Limitations for San Antonio Dog Bite Cases
Two years from the date of the bite is the deadline to file a Texas dog bite lawsuit. Nothing short of filing stops that clock: not a demand letter, not an open insurance claim, not an Animal Care Services report.
Children are treated differently. Texas does not count the years before a person turns 18, so a child bitten today has until two years after the 18th birthday. The law allows the wait, but cases rarely survive it, because dogs get rehomed, records are purged and policies lapse. A parent’s own claim for the bills the parent paid runs on the ordinary two year clock.
If a government agency is involved the window is much shorter. The City of San Antonio’s charter requires written notice of a claim within 90 days of the injury, and the Texas Supreme Court has enforced that deadline. Other Texas governments run on a six month notice rule. If a city, county or police dog was involved, call within days. The dog bite statute of limitations explains how the clock works.
Homeowner and Renter Insurance for San Antonio Dog Bites
The money in a San Antonio dog bite case usually comes from an insurance policy, not from the owner personally. The Insurance Information Institute describes the usual arrangement: homeowners and renters policies typically cover dog bite liability and legal expenses up to the policy limits, commonly between $100,000 and $300,000, with the owner responsible above that.
Texas does not make dog owners buy liability insurance. The exception is a legally dangerous dog, whose owner must carry at least $100,000 of coverage or show financial responsibility in that amount. San Antonio requires the same $100,000 certificate before a declared dangerous dog goes back to its owner, and can require $100,000 for a classified aggressive dog at any level.
Ask the owner which company carries their homeowner or renter policy. If the bite happened in an apartment common area, ask who manages the property, because there is often a commercial policy too. If the dog was already classified, Animal Care Services should have the certificate on file. A breed based denial does not end your claim. And do not take a fast check, because scar revision decisions are often a year away and a signed release closes the file for good.
Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your San Antonio Case
Dog Bite Laws takes dog attack cases and nothing else. In San Antonio that means knowing which records exist and how fast they disappear: the 311 report, the Animal Care Services bite file, the quarantine record, any earlier aggressive dog classification, and your first week photographs.
We also know where these cases get lost. A cooperative owner stops answering. An adjuster calls while you are still on antibiotics. A scar looks fine at six weeks and does not at six months.
We work across Texas, including Houston, Austin and Fort Worth. You can read about Michael Agruss or contact us whenever you are ready. The consultation costs nothing, and there is no fee unless we recover money for you.
Preguntas frecuentes
Aggressive dog is a San Antonio classification with no state equivalent, and it runs in three levels. Level 2 means an unrestrained dog physically injured a domestic animal or livestock. Level 3 covers killing one, or repeating level 2 behavior after notice. Level 1 covers threatening behavior without injury. The classification carries restraint, microchip, sterilization and insurance conditions, and it creates a city file that can help prove what the owner already knew about the dog.
Yes, in defined situations. City code section 5-127(f) requires sterilization within 30 days after the quarantine period for a dog or cat that bit a person or another animal without provocation, or for a dog that bit while it was found free of restraint. It applies whether or not the dog is ever classified as dangerous or aggressive, and the record of it is one more document confirming the bite happened and how the dog was being kept.
You can do either, but Animal Care Services asks you to call. It tells residents who have been bitten to call 3-1-1 or 210-207-6000 immediately so the animal can be captured and quarantined, and section 5-126(a) points to the same route. The city's 311 portal does also take an animal bite request online, but the city's own instruction is to call when the animal still needs to be picked up. Veterinary clinics and medical facilities have a separate email route to obtain the Animal Bite Exposure Form, but that is for providers reporting a bite, not for the person who was bitten.
Only if four things are true. The home must have secure facilities approved by the director, the dog must have been currently vaccinated against rabies when the bite happened, the dog must not have been in violation of any law or ordinance at the time, and the director, the city veterinarian or a licensed veterinarian must observe the dog on at least the first and last days. Otherwise the dog goes to an approved quarantine facility for the full 240 hours.
It is usually a bad trade for you. A private payment is offered before anyone knows what the wound will cost, and dog bite costs grow with infection, scar revision and missed work. If you sign anything in exchange, you have most likely given up the claim entirely. Ask which company carries the owner's homeowner or renter policy instead. That coverage exists for exactly this situation and is where a full recovery usually comes from.
In most cases the claim is handled by his homeowner or renter insurance, not out of his pocket. He reports it, the insurer investigates, and payment comes from the policy. A lawsuit is a last step if the insurer will not resolve it fairly, and even then the policy is what responds. Asking a neighbor for his insurance information is a normal thing to do after an injury, and it keeps the money question away from the two of you.
Call 311 right away so Animal Care Services can quarantine the dog, then get medical care and tell the provider it was a work route. Report it to the platform or employer the same day, since a workers compensation or occupational policy claim can run alongside a claim against the dog's owner. Save the trip record, because it fixes the address and the time. Someone delivering for the household's benefit is generally owed ordinary care, which helps your claim.
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