The highest annual total in the Health Department’s data from 2015 to 2024 came in 2024, when New York City recorded 3,814 reported dog bites. The report’s publication in 2026 drew fresh attention to what happens after a complaint.
New York’s dangerous-dog statute uses “lawful custodian” without defining it separately. In practice, this means someone legally entitled to possess or control the animal, rather than a mere bystander. Strict liability for resulting medical costs can fall on the owner or lawful custodian after a dog is found dangerous, though statutory exceptions apply.
Ownership documentation is relevant. Yet it doesn’t resolve every custody question when someone else had permission to keep the dog and authority over its care. Consider how that arrangement actually worked as well as the name on the license.
What Does “Lawful Custodian of a Dangerous Dog in New York” Mean?
New York Agriculture and Markets Law § 123 uses “owner or lawful custodian” without separately defining custody. In practice, you examine legal authority over the dog and how its care was actually arranged, instead of looking only at title.
The license holder and the caregiver may be two different people. Useful evidence starts with the owner’s permission and the caregiver’s authority to make decisions; messages can also show who controlled the animal when the incident happened.
When Section 123 assigns responsibility for medical costs, title may differ from custody, which is why the phrase lawful custodian of a dangerous dog in New York matters. That statutory route concerns medical costs, not every loss recoverable through a separate negligence or vicious-propensity claim.
What Constitutes a Dangerous Dog?
Conduct, rather than breed, drives New York’s designation. Its statutory definition covers an unjustified attack causing physical injury or death, or behavior that would make a reasonable person perceive a serious and unjustified imminent threat of serious physical injury or death.
Breed and size don’t decide it automatically. Barking alone doesn’t automatically determine the designation either. The court considers the circumstances, including statutory exceptions involving provocation or a justified effort to protect a person.
A civil “vicious propensities” claim isn’t the same as a dangerous-dog designation. The court decides dangerousness in the statutory proceeding. A civil strict-liability claim instead turns on a dangerous tendency and the defendant’s knowledge, and conduct before the attack may supply evidence.
What Happens During a New York Dangerous-Dog Proceeding?
A city judge or a town or village justice hears a Section 123 case. The later personal-injury lawsuit is separate.
After an attack or threatened attack, witnesses may complain to a dog-control or police officer, or submit a sworn complaint to the court. The judge immediately reviews whether probable cause exists. The judge orders seizure if there is probable cause, and the dog is held pending a determination.
Whether or not the judge orders seizure, the owner must receive at least two days’ written notice of a hearing held within five days. The petitioner must establish dangerousness by clear and convincing evidence.
If the dog is found dangerous, the court must order microchipping and spaying or neutering. One or more reasonable safety conditions authorized by statute must also appear in the order, perhaps secure confinement or evaluation by a qualified behavior specialist. In public, the dog may need a muzzle or a leash held by an adult who is at least 21 years old.
Dangerous status doesn’t automatically mean a death sentence. Euthanasia or permanent confinement requires statutory aggravating circumstances, such as an unjustified attack causing serious physical injury or death to a person.
During the case, the seizure order controls possession; afterward, the final order sets handling restrictions. This proceeding won’t provide complete personal-injury compensation for losses such as pain and suffering.
Who Can Be Treated as the Dog’s Lawful Custodian?
Someone other than the titled owner may qualify, but authorized custody must be established with evidence. These roles identify facts to investigate, not automatic assignments under Section 123.
| Person | Does the role automatically establish lawful custody? | Facts that may matter |
| Dog walker or sitter | No | Owner’s permission; duration and regularity of care; control at the time of the incident |
| Roommate or household member | No | Responsibility for routine care; decision-making authority; actual living arrangement |
| Landlord or property owner | Not through property ownership alone | Actual custodial authority; knowledge and control of the premises relevant to a separate liability theory |
| Employee or delivery worker | No | Temporary proximity alone doesn’t establish an authorized custodial relationship |
Can a Dog Walker Be a Lawful Custodian in New York?
Dog walkers could qualify if evidence shows legally authorized possession or control. A single dog walk doesn’t establish lawful custody automatically. Take, for example, a sitter with permission to keep the dog for several days and make care decisions. By contrast, a passerby is handed a leash only briefly.
Can a Roommate or Landlord Be Named?
Roommates may qualify when entrusted with keeping and controlling the dog. Simply owning the building doesn’t make landlords custodians. In Agro v. Olivieri, a 2024 New York appellate decision, property-owner strict liability requires actual or constructive knowledge that the dog was harbored there and had vicious propensities; it also requires enough control of the premises to remove or confine the dog.
Of reported bites to city residents in 2024, 31 percent involved a dog owned in the victim’s building or household, according to the NYC Health Department’s household data.
Who Pays Medical Costs After the Finding?
Section 123(10) makes the owner or lawful custodian of a dog adjudicated dangerous strictly liable for medical costs resulting from injuries the dog causes, subject to statutory exceptions. An injured person needn’t prove ordinary carelessness under this provision once the statutory requirements are met.
A claim isn’t limited to medical bills. This statutory category includes hospital treatment, but another liability theory is needed for lost earnings and pain and suffering. The dangerous-dog order doesn’t itself establish entitlement to those broader damages.
In Flanders v. Goodfellow, decided in April 2025, the New York Court of Appeals permitted ordinary negligence claims against dog owners for failing to use reasonable care, even without known vicious propensities. The court also retained strict liability when the owner knew or should have known of those propensities. Here, the term includes any tendency that endangers people or property, not just a previous bite.
Negligence still requires supporting evidence. An unsecured gate, rather than an earlier attack, might provide it.
Do Service-Dog or Emotional-Support Labels Change the Analysis?
An assistance-animal label doesn’t erase dangerous conduct under Section 123. New York’s dangerous-dog designation addresses a different question than federal access and housing standards.
What Can Disqualify an Emotional-Support Animal?
Federal housing guidance allows an accommodation to be denied for a specific animal if individualized, objective evidence shows a direct threat or substantial risk of property damage that can’t be sufficiently reduced. There’s no universal federal certification that permanently qualifies an emotional-support animal.
Can You Touch a Service Dog?
Don’t touch a working service dog without its handler’s permission. Etiquette is the issue, not a universal criminal prohibition.
How Can You Recognize a Fake Service Dog?
You generally can’t tell by a vest, breed, or online certificate. Federal guidance permits covered businesses, when the need isn’t apparent, to ask two questions: is the dog required because of a disability, and what work or task has it been trained to perform?
What Should You Avoid Around a Service Dog?
Don’t feed or call to a working dog without permission. Avoid deliberately distracting the dog while it assists its handler.
What to Do After a Dangerous-Dog Order
Get the written order and keep a copy where anyone handling the dog can read it. Save permission texts and care arrangements as you document ownership and actual control. Preserve all medical bills and communications about the incident. Obey every confinement or handling condition. If you’re injured, track civil filing deadlines independently of the municipal case. Keep custody and the court order separate: facts determine custody, while the written order sets immediate duties. Any later claim will depend on the available evidence.
Sources
New York City Health Department’s 2026 dog-bite report.
New York Agriculture and Markets Law § 123; Agro v. Olivieri, New York Appellate Division, Second Department (2024); Flanders v. Goodfellow, New York Court of Appeals (April 2025).
U.S. Department of Justice, service-animal FAQs; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, assistance-animal housing guidance.
Written in partnership with Tom White
