Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Does property owner have right to shoot my dog?

How absolutely terrible. The man who shot your dog had no right to. Whether or not you were trespassing. I would find a lawyer to throw every book there is at this guy. There is certainly an assault here as well as death threats embodied in the shooting and his remark that ''you have 15 minutes to get off my land.'' I'd sue this man. Good Luck.

Re: Does property owner have right to shoot my dog?

How awful! The man had no right to shoot the dog just for barking at him. If the dog (or one of you) did something that reasonably put the man in fear that the dog was about to attack him, then the shooting would be excusable. I see no reason to believe this was the case.

It sounds to me like you and your girlfriend both have good cases to make against this man, though hers is stronger since she owned the dog; she is entitled to damages for the dog's value to her and for its pain and suffering, as well as for the emotional distress these intentional act caused her, while you may have a smaller emotional distress claim and both of you are entitled to damages for assault.

Even if you were trespassing on private property, the owner only had the right to make you leave and not to shoot the dog. This is not even a close call unless, as I said, he had reason to think the dog was going to attack him.

Landowners are not required to enclose their land or put up signs around the boundaries. And even if this lunatic had put up a sign warning that trespassers' dogs would be shot, the law still would not have allowed him to do so.

There may be some practical problems to deal with, though. It may be that the land really was public as your maps indicated and that this man was lying about being the owner. If that is the case you may never be able to tell who he was. Alternatively, it may be that you were not where you thought you were; if you can't determine where this happened it will be hard to figure out who owned the land.

The best place to start is probably with the local police / sherrif's department in the area where this happened. Shooting the dog may well have been a crime, and threatening you likely was as well. But even if the police don't think they can justify an arrest they may be able to help you figure out who did this. Chances are good that this man has had a run-in or two with law enforcement and is known by all the local officers.

Good luck, and please pass my sincere condolensces along to your girlfriend.

Re: Does property owner have right to shoot my dog?

wow! first of all, we deeply empathize with the trauma you and your family must have suffered from the wanton actions of this apparently sadistic person at issue. you have our deepest and warmest regards. from a legal standpoint, this may or may not necessarily be a criminal complaint, as we we need more facts from you to make that determination. however, from the facts given so far, it definitely could constitute some form of civil liability! so, if you would like to contact us directly today with more facts, we would be more than happy to give you further legal assistance and/or direction in this very sad and unfortunate matter.