Ohio Dog Bite Reporting Requirements and Penalties

Ohio dog bite reporting requirements give you a tight window: any dog bite must be reported to the health commissioner of the district where the bite happened within 24 hours. Under Ohio Administrative Code 3701-3-28, that duty falls on three people — the health care provider who treats the victim, any licensed veterinarian who learns about the bite, and the person who was bitten.¹ Reporting starts a mandatory ten-day quarantine of the dog and lets health officials assess the rabies risk while there is still time to act on it.

Who Is Required to Report

Ohio’s rule is narrower than most people assume. Only three categories of people carry the 24-hour reporting duty under OAC 3701-3-28: treating health care providers, licensed veterinarians who learn of the bite, and the victim.¹ The rule does not name dog owners, law enforcement officers, or animal control officers as required reporters. Owners have separate post-bite duties under Ohio Revised Code 955.261, but those duties are not the health department report.

If you were bitten and choose not to see a doctor or a vet, no one else has the reporting obligation. It rests with you. Skipping the report leaves health officials unable to evaluate the rabies risk or order the dog quarantined, and rabies exposure is time-sensitive: the CDC’s post-exposure prophylaxis protocol calls for four vaccine doses on days 0, 3, 7, and 14.² Retail cost can exceed $500 per dose.

Where and How to File the Report

Reports go to the health commissioner of the district where the bite occurred, not where the dog’s owner lives or where the victim resides. Each county or city health department handles intake and any follow-up investigation. The Ohio Department of Health does not accept individual bite reports; it receives an annual summary from local districts each March 1.¹

How you submit varies. Some counties use online portals or downloadable PDFs, others take reports by fax or email. Franklin County Public Health, for example, uses an animal bite intake form that can be faxed within the 24-hour window.³ Call the health department for the county where the bite happened and ask which format they accept.

A typical bite report asks for:

The victim’s name, address, phone number, and age
The type of injury and where it is on the body
Whether the victim was exposed to the animal’s saliva
Identifying information about the dog and its owner⁴

If the owner is unknown, describe the dog in as much detail as you can — breed, size, color, collar, tags, where it was last seen. That description is what health officials use to locate the dog and start quarantine.

What Happens After You Report

Once a bite is reported, the health commissioner must order the biting dog quarantined for at least ten days from the date of the bite. Every reported biting dog is quarantined, whether or not its rabies vaccination is current.⁵ Quarantine can take place at the owner’s home, a pound, shelter, or kennel, but it stays under the health commissioner’s supervision and is carried out at the owner’s expense.

The owner must report any sign of illness in the dog to the health commissioner immediately. If the health commissioner requires a veterinary rabies examination, the owner pays for that too. The dog is not released from quarantine until a veterinarian’s certificate confirms a current rabies vaccination.⁵

If a quarantined dog dies before the observation period ends, its head is submitted to the Ohio Department of Health’s public health laboratory for rabies testing. If the owner cannot be located, the health commissioner may order the animal euthanized and tested.⁵

What the Dog Owner Must Do

Owners are not on the OAC 3701-3-28 list, but Ohio Revised Code 955.261 places its own duties on anyone connected to a dog that has bitten someone. Until the quarantine period ends, no one may remove the dog from the county where the bite occurred, and no one may transfer the dog to another person. Transferring the dog to a county dog warden or animal control is allowed.⁶

Killing a biting dog before the quarantine ends is prohibited, with one exception: the dog may be killed to prevent further injury or death, or if it is diseased or seriously injured. Whoever kills the dog must immediately notify the local board of health about both the bite and the killing, and must hold the body until the board claims it for rabies testing.⁶

Police dogs are exempt when they bite during law enforcement duties or while under a veterinarian’s care. If a police dog shows abnormal behavior after a bite, though, the agency must make the dog available for rabies testing within a reasonable time.⁶

Penalties for Failing to Report

Failing to comply with the public health reporting requirement under Ohio Revised Code 3707.06 is a minor misdemeanor for a first offense and a fourth-degree misdemeanor for each subsequent offense.⁷

Violating the post-bite duties in ORC 955.261 — removing the dog from the county before quarantine ends, killing the dog outside the narrow exception, failing to notify the board of health — draws a minor misdemeanor for a first reckless violation and a fourth-degree misdemeanor for each subsequent offense.⁶

The larger exposure often runs through civil court. If an owner’s failure to report or quarantine contributes to a second attack, that noncompliance can be used as evidence of negligence in a lawsuit. And if the dog has already been classified as dangerous or vicious and then injures or kills someone, the owner faces a third-degree felony under ORC 955.22.⁸

Reporting Does Not Extend the Lawsuit Deadline

One point worth flagging for victims: filing the health department report is separate from filing a personal injury claim, and it does not preserve your right to sue. Ohio Revised Code 2305.10 gives dog bite victims two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit.⁹ Submitting the bite report does not pause or extend that clock. Treat the two-year deadline as running from the day of the bite, regardless of when or how the report was filed.

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Administrative Code 3701-3-28 – Report of Bite of Dog or Other Mammal
2
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rabies Post-exposure Prophylaxis Guidance
3
Franklin County Public Health. Animal Bite Intake Report
4
Madison County Public Health. Bite/Exposure Reporting Form
5
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Administrative Code 3701-3-29 – Biting Animal to Be Confined; Veterinarian to Report
6
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 955.261 – Duties After Dog Bites Person
7
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 3707.99 – Penalties
8
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 955.22 – Vicious, Dangerous, and Nuisance Dog Acts
9
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Revised Code 2305.10 – Bodily Injury or Injuring Personal Property