Hello all, i would appreciate some advice. Today i took a walk around a local playing field with my border collie, we walked along the path and my dog was on his lead, he started to limp after trying to miss glass covering the whole of the pathway, i took him on the muddy grass and he had cut his foot quite badly. I have had to take him to out of hours vets and now has to have a toe removed as the glass has severed his foot badly, he under goes the op in the morning. My question is can i sue the council for my costs? The area i was in belongs to the council, however it is always over run with waste, glass and alcohol cans but is suppose to be a area for walking and playing sports.

Possibly.

In order to sue the council you would have to establish that they owed your dog a duty of care, that they breached that duty of care, and but for the breach, 'damage' would not have occured.

Actually, i am not personally sure if the duty of care stretches to animals in the tort of negligence, but you can try; the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (sort of) introduced a duty of care to animals.

In terms of damages though, the most you might get is the cost of treatment. Unless of course your dog is a working dog (sheepdog perhaps) and you can financially quantify the additional losses suffered as a result of the injury.

Try looking for a dog-loving no win no fee lawyer, google injury lawyers.

the counter argument would of course be that - you definitely had a duty of care to protect your dog, and as you admitted yourself 'it [the field] is always run with waste, glass and alcohol' you may have a hard time convincing them you were protecting your dog from the risk of injury knowing you were letting him run where you are aware glass is present.