It’s not quite as common as other injuries or accidents, like a car accident or a slip and fall, but on occasion people still are attacked by a dog or receive a dog bite. The law in South Carolina makes the owner of the biting dog strictly liable for the bite and for the damages to the dog bite victim. However, there is one defense to the dog bite statute and that is where the dog is provoked. If someone taunts or otherwise provokes the dog and it bites, then there is a provocation defense to the dog bite. The actual South Carolina statute pertaining to animal attacks and dog bites is below.
SECTION 47-3-110. Liability of owner or person having dog in his care or keeping.
Whenever any person is bitten or otherwise attacked by a dog while the person is in a public place or is lawfully in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog or other person having the dog in his care or keeping, the owner of the dog or other person having the dog in his care or keeping is liable for the damages suffered by the person bitten or otherwise attacked.
For the purposes of this section, a person bitten or otherwise attacked is lawfully in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog or other person having the dog in his care or keeping, when the person bitten or otherwise attacked is on the property in the performance of any duty imposed upon him by the laws of this State, by the ordinances of any political subdivision of this State, by the laws of the United States of America, including, but not limited to, postal regulations, or when the person bitten or otherwise attacked is on the property upon the invitation, express or implied, of the owner of the property or of any lawful tenant or resident of the property.
If a person provokes a dog into attacking him or her then the owner of the dog is not liable.
