Is It Worth Taking Someone To Court Over $1500 In Vet Bills From A Dog Bite?
A few weeks ago my dog was bit by another dog while on a walk with my wife. The dog took a good chunk of flesh and we had to rush our dog to urgent care. We ended up spending most of the night there and the vet bill + meds were around $1000. My wife also had to take the day off the next day to watch her. We messaged him the bill and asked if he could pay at least half, but he never replied. A week later we had to revisit the vet because the wound was infected. We were diligently taking care of her wound, but the vet said it’s common with dog bites. The owner also originally said the dog had all her shots, but I’m not sure. We tried to contact him to confirm which shots his dog had, but he never replied. For the infection, we had to pay a visit fee and lab work.
In the end, the total amount in vet bills + meds ended up being around ~$1500.
At the time, there was a big crowd of people, and he had agreed to help pay, but now he’s been ignoring our texts/calls. We’ve filed a police dog bite report and contacted animal control. Animal control said they would check whether the dog had a rabies shot, and if he didn’t he would have to pay a ticket, but they couldn’t do much else than that.
My question is, is it worth trying to get that money back legally? Honestly, the money isn’t a huge issue for me, but it’s the principle. The fact he’s dodging us and not even answering questions about the vaccines is BS and makes me feel like he’s not even trying to take any responsibility. But I also don’t want to go to court if I’ll end up even / losing. I’ve never done anything like this so any input helps.
For context, I live in Chicago, IL.
[link] [comments]
