A Dog Bite In The Good Ol’ Boy System

Location: Tennessee

My husband went for a run yesterday morning with our one-year-old dog and, while on the opposite side of the road, two dogs (a mastiff and shepherd mix of some sort) belonging to a sheriffs deputy that lives a couple houses down ran into the road, chased him into the neighbor across the streets’ yard, and bit both him and our dog multiple times. He was not on or even particularly near their property, and the dogs were “secured” by an underground electric fence that the deputy alleges he charges the collars for every other day. He did not exit his home for the entirety of the event (approximately an hour total post-bite, during which the shepherd mix defensively held my husband on the across-the-street-neighbors front porch)and actually didn’t emerge until after the sheriffs department arrived, at which point the second dog (shepherd mix) went home. He stated he was “surprised this happened” and that “their shot records are on file” despite my husband having confirmed with another neighbor that the neighbor was aware his dogs could be aggressive, but “not to worry because they have an electric fence.”

My husband has now been to the ER to have stitches, and our dog is having staples put in today. The neighbor hasn’t offered any insurance information, condolences, or even changed the way he contains his dogs. There are multiple small children that live on our road, including our own, who regularly joins my husband for the part of the run that takes place on our road. Thankfully, this wasn’t one of those runs.

The sheriff’s department is acting like there’s very little they can do, but the health department seems to think otherwise. We feel like our local LEA isn’t going to take care of this the way it should be taken care of. What do we do? What are our options? Our yard isn’t fenced in, and I no longer feel safe allowing my kiddo to play outside.