Hi there,
In today’s post I tell you how the legal process has been after Diego was bitten by a dog when we were returning from a hiking route.
On March 18, 2023 we went hiking in Serras do Porto.
When we were finishing the route, we passed in front of a house from which about 10 dogs came out barking and one of them bit Diego.
Diego screamed when he felt the bite and I tried to scare the dogs away with the umbrella because they were still there barking.
I checked Diego’s leg, and he had the wound that was already starting to bleed. I proceeded to make a video narrating the situation because I would use it later as evidence to file the complaint.
After 10 minutes the owner of the dogs came out to ask if we had been bitten. He went back inside supposedly to get alcohol and since it was taking so long, we left.
When we were on the road waiting for the Uber, the gentleman came back with the alcohol as if to give it to us and that was it. When he saw that I was recording and after telling him that it was very serious what had happened, he offered to take us to the medical center.
At the medical center the situation was very surreal.
The doctor asked if the dogs were vaccinated and the man said yes and offered to bring the documentation, to which the doctor replied: “No, don’t worry, we trust the people here”.
I expected that in the same medical center they would call the police as they would have done in Spain or in any first world country, but that did not happen. So, we had to go in the following days to file a complaint with the PSP.
In addition to placing the complaint at the PSP in person, I proceeded to send emails with the complaint to all the email addresses I had from the PSP and the GNR.
On January 8, 2024, we went to the GNR in Fanzeres to testify, Diego as the complainant and myself as a witness.
The curious thing is that after Diego testified, he gave a pent drive to the policeman where there were also videos; the policeman answered that for the moment the videos were not necessary.
When I went to testify, I realized that the owner of the dogs had said that it had been his dog Kika that had bitten Diego and that this dog was the one that was going to be taken to quarantine to see if she had all the documentation in order.
I told the policeman that the owner was not there when Diego was bitten and that we had our backs turned, so no one knew which of those 10 dogs had bitten Diego and that all the dogs that this gentleman had on his property should be investigated.
The policeman told us that we would receive a letter to ask for compensation and that eventually we would be called for the trial.
To our surprise, in August we received a resolution from the Public Prosecutor’s Office saying that the process is suspended as they give the owner of the dogs 6 months to pay the ridiculous figure of 350 euros to an association and that, if he complied, the process would be closed.
In conclusion, the Public Prosecutor’s Office washed its hands, the gentleman was not penalized and much less the victim’s compensation was demanded.
Faced with such a third world country resolution, I proceeded to make the pertinent claims.
In addition, my lawyer told me that we now had to file an action in the civil court to ask for the payment of Diego’s compensation, which logically meant losing more time and money.
On November 13, 2024, I sent a complaint to the presidency of the republic, the prime minister and the general inspectorate of justice services.
In addition, we scheduled an email to arrive every week to the Public Prosecutor’s Office with Diego’s formal complaint.
Later I would also send a complaint to the PSP so that they would check all the dogs that were in that house.
