Bill Text: NJ S540 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes disorderly persons offense for dog owner who fails to remain at scene and provide certain information when dog injures a person.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Law and Public Safety Committee [S540 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-S540-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator JON M. BRAMNICK
District 21 (Middlesex, Morris, Somerset and Union)
SYNOPSIS
Establishes disorderly persons offense for dog owner who fails to remain at scene and provide certain information when dog injures a person.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning the requirement to remain at scene when a dog injures a person, and supplementing Title 4 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. If a dog bites or otherwise injures a person in the presence of the dog's owner, the owner of the dog shall remain at the scene of the incident until the owner of the dog provides the person bitten or otherwise injured by the dog with their name, address, and contact information.
b. Any dog owner whose dog bites or otherwise injures another person in the owner's presence, and who fails to comply with the requirements specified in subsection a. of this section, shall be guilty of a disorderly persons offense. Notwithstanding the provisions of N.J.S.2C:43-3 to the contrary, for every conviction of an offense pursuant to this section, the person shall be fined not less than $500 nor more than $1,000, or be imprisoned for a term of not more than six months, or both.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would make it a disorderly persons offense if a person's dog bites or otherwise injures another person in the dog owner's presence, and the dog owner fails to remain at the scene of the incident until certain information has been provided to the person bitten or otherwise injured by the dog.
Specifically, the bill requires a dog owner whose dog bites or otherwise injures another person in the presence of the owner, to remain at the scene of the incident until the owner of the dog provides the person bitten or otherwise injured by the dog with their name, address, and contact information.
Notwithstanding the provisions of N.J.S.2C:43-3 to the contrary, a person convicted of a disorderly persons offense under the bill will be subject to pay a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $1,000, or to be imprisoned for a term of not more than six months, or both.
