On January 3, 2007, 8-month-old Andrew Stein of Brooklyn, New York, was killed in his home by his parents’ Doberman pinscher.
New York is a “mixed” dog bite statute state, in that the statute provides strict liability for medical bills, but substantially adheres to the British “one-bite” rule. (For more about the ancient and unfair one-bite rule, see the post which follows this one.)
The first canine homicide of the year came early in the month, following a year in which there were 32 human fatalities throughout the country. Such incidents have been on the rise since the 1980s, when annual deaths by dogs numbered in the teens.