Is ''Screaming'' Considered Provocation In Dog Bite Cases ?

In Robinson v. Meadows, 203 Ill. App. 3d 706, 713, 561 N.E.2d 111, 115, 148 Ill. Dec. 805 (1990), the four-year-old plaintiff began screaming when the defendant's dog began barking. The dog responded by attacking the plaintiff viciously, tearing her lip and inflicting puncture wounds and scratches on her face, neck, and throat. The court determined that, while the plaintiff's scream triggered the dog's attack on her, that scream could not be regarded "under any reasonable standard" as having been sufficient to account for the savagery of the dog's assault. Thus, no provocation existed. The court, in making this statement, appears to suggest that the dog reacted in an unreasonable manner to the child's screams.