Dog owner’s liability for damages to persons, domestic animals, or livestock
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case 211 So. 2d 606 - Brandeis v. Felcher (1968)
Most recently applied in 559 F. Supp. 2d 1281 - Trammell v. Thomason (June 2008)
History.--RS 2341; ch. 4979, 1901; GS 3142; RGS 4957; CGL 7044; s. 1, ch. 94-339; s. 48, ch. 2024-137; s. 2, ch. 2025-61.
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(1) A dog owner is liable for any damage done by the owner’s dog to a person or to any animal included in the definitions of “domestic animal” and “livestock” as provided by s. 585.01.
(2) If a dog owner has knowledge of the dog’s dangerous propensities, the owner must securely confine the dog in a proper enclosure as defined in s. 767.11.
Official source: Online Sunshine (Florida Legislature). Reproduced from public-domain Florida statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.