174.12 Actions against owners.

(1) The allowance by a county of any claim for damages done by dogs constitutes an assignment to the county of the cause of the action of the claimant for which the claim is filed, and the county may sue and recover from the owner of the dog or dogs doing the damages the full amount thereof and which shall not be limited to the sum paid the claimant by the county. The allowance under s. 174.11 (2) (c) by an intergovernmental commission of any claim for damages done by dogs constitutes an assignment to the intergovernmental commission of the cause of the action of the claimant for which the claim is filed, and the intergovernmental commission may sue and recover from the owner of the dog or dogs doing the damages the full amount thereof and which shall not be limited to the sum paid the claimant by the intergovernmental commission. Before any claim shall be allowed by a county or an intergovernmental commission on account of damages done by dogs, the claimant shall furnish satisfactory proof that the damage was not done in whole or in part by any dog owned, kept, or harbored by the claimant.

(2) No claim shall be allowed by a county board or an intergovernmental commission at less than the amount so certified and reported, unless the claimant shall first be notified that such action is contemplated and shall have been given a reasonable opportunity to be heard and to offer further evidence in support of the claimant's claim.

(3) This chapter shall not in any way limit the existing right or authority of any town, village or city to pass ordinances for the keeping and regulating of dogs, or repeal or annul any existing statute or ordinance or local regulation governing the keeping and regulating of dogs; but on and after July 1, 1920, no town, village or city shall pass any ordinance for the licensing of dogs, and all town, village or city ordinances and local regulations licensing dogs then in force shall be null and void.

(4) No person except the owner or the owner's authorized agent shall remove any license tag from a dog collar or remove any collar with a license attached thereto from any dog. No person shall keep or harbor a dog wearing a fictitious, altered or invalid license tag, or a license tag not issued in connection with the licensing or keeping of the dog wearing the same. No license or license tag issued for one dog shall be transferable to another dog. Every town, village or city treasurer shall notify the district attorney of that treasurer's county of every refusal or failure of an owner to obtain a license for keeping the owner's dog and it shall be the duty of the district attorney to institute proceedings against such owner and against every owner within the district attorney's county who has violated any of the provisions of the dog license law.

(5) Dogs brought into the state temporarily for a period not to exceed 30 days if kept confined or in leash shall be exempt from this chapter.

(6) The provisions of this chapter relating to the licensing of dogs and the provisions for the payment of claims out of the dog license fund for damages done by dogs are severable and the provisions relating to such payment of claims are not an inducement to the enactment of any other provisions of this chapter.

History: 1981 c. 390 s. 252; 1993 a. 482; 2003 a. 133.