My cat was attacked by a neighbor's dog...

[Honeycombe8]

24. Hmmmm, that's touchy. I still say it's the owner's responsibility.

An apartment MUST have a secure door. I'm sure there's a law somewhere about that....slumlords and such. A safety feature.

But for the door being "open," nothing would have happened. If YOU had been teh one injured, the apt owner might be sitting in jail right now for failing to provide a safe residence, if you had notified him of the problem.

The dog might be put down for being vicious, but I can almost bet money that if you sued the apt owner in small claims court for the vet bills, you'd win, hands down. IT IS THE OWNER'S RESPONSIBILITY TO PROVIDE A SAFE, SECURE DOOR TO AN APARTMENT HE RENTS. There is no exception to that rule.

You're talking about getting the dog in trouble, which I understand and would feel the same way. But I'm talking about the irresponsible owner. I used to lease a condo. An owner MUST provide reasonable safety features to a residence. It's sort of like....if I lease you a boat with a hole in the bottom, and it sinks, is it a boat? No...boats float. If I lease you an apt without a door, is it an apartment? Or is it more like an area or a cave dwelling, since it doesn't have a door?