This is a disaster.
Apparently, this elderly woman whose face was mauled by a neighbor’s dog, leaving her face completely drenched in blood, along with her son. It looks like everything on her face, except for her mouth, has been destroyed.
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Hangzhou’s Dog Regulations and No-Fault Liability under the Civil Code
In China, a series of dog-bite incidents involving neighborhood pets has highlighted a situation where regulations have failed to keep pace with the rapid surge in pet ownership within urban areas. On November 15, 2018, the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province implemented a rigorous enforcement campaign targeting issues such as walking dogs outside permitted hours, failing to use a leash, allowing pets to defecate in inappropriate places, and keeping unregistered dogs. The new regulations impose fines of up to 1,000 yuan for failing to use a leash and up to 10,000 yuan for keeping an unregistered dog. The measures were described in reports as the “strictest pet dog regulations in history”—a characterization that, conversely, underscores just how lax the management of pets had been until then.
Regarding legal liability, Article 1245 of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that if a dog causes harm to another person, the owner or keeper bears strict liability (liability without regard to fault); this liability cannot be waived unless the victim acted with intent or gross negligence. Furthermore, Article 1246 imposes even stricter liability in cases where management regulations—such as the requirement to use a leash—have been violated; under these circumstances, the owner’s liability for damages cannot be reduced even if the victim was guilty of gross negligence. The recent rise in dog-bite incidents must be viewed against the backdrop of these strengthened regulations and the established framework of strict liability.
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