Two Milwaukee police officers ended up hospitalized on Wednesday afternoon after a woman allegedly commanded her dog to attack them while they tried to arrest her for trespassing. The confrontation unfolded shortly before 4 p.m. at a business near South Fifth Court, close to 6th and Rosedale on the city's south side, when officers say the 25-year-old suspect instructed her dog to go after them.
According to CBS 58, the dog bit both officers as they attempted to take the woman into custody. Per the Milwaukee Police Department, which sent details of the incident to FOX6 News Milwaukee, one of the officers is 27 years old with less than a year on the job, while the other is 36 with more than two years of service. Officers used non-lethal options to stop the attack rather than resorting to their firearms.
Officers Treated and Released, Suspect in Custody
Both officers were taken to the hospital for treatment of non-fatal injuries and have since been released; they are now recovering at home, the station's report notes. The 25-year-old woman was arrested in connection with the dog bite incident, and the investigation remains ongoing, per the same account.
The department's reliance on non-lethal tools during the encounter tracks with its own policies. Milwaukee Police Department Standard Operating Procedures direct officers facing aggressive animals to use less-than-deadly force options whenever practical, including pepper spray, batons, or electronic control devices, reserving deadly force for situations involving imminent threats of great bodily harm where other options are impractical, according to the City of Milwaukee.
A Recent Pattern of Dog Encounters for MPD
Wednesday's incident came just three months after another close call for Milwaukee officers. On May 25, a 51-year-old Milwaukee police officer was hospitalized after being bitten by a dog during a loose-animal call near 106th and Bender, an incident in which responding officers shot two dogs that were later euthanized, as reported by FOX6 News Milwaukee.
The legal stakes for the woman arrested Wednesday could be significant. Under Wisconsin Statute § 940.203(2), intentionally causing bodily harm to a law enforcement officer acting in an official capacity is classified as a Class H felony, punishable by up to six years in prison — split between initial confinement and extended supervision — and a fine of up to $10,000, according to the Wisconsin State Legislature. It remains an open question whether the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office will pursue felony battery charges tied to the dog attack.
What Happens to the Dog Now
Beyond the criminal exposure for the suspect, Wisconsin law also imposes strict civil liability on dog owners for injuries their animals cause, regardless of the dog's prior behavior, with the possibility of double damages if the owner had prior notice the dog had bitten or injured someone before, per Third Coast Lawyers. Separately, state health regulations require that any dog involved in a human bite incident undergo a mandatory 10-day rabies observation quarantine, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Animal control operations and shelter services for animals seized or quarantined in Milwaukee County typically fall to the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission, an intergovernmental agency created in 1996 that serves 19 municipalities in the county.
City of Milwaukee procedures require that any animal bite breaking human skin be reported to the Department of Neighborhood Services, or to police after business hours, so the case can be tracked for quarantine purposes. It's still unclear whether MADACC or the Department of Neighborhood Services will move to designate the dog a prohibited dangerous animal under city code, and the exact extent of the officers' bite injuries has not been detailed.
A Broader Statewide Blind Spot
The Wednesday attack also lands amid wider scrutiny of how Wisconsin law enforcement agencies handle and record dog-related force incidents. A statewide report from Wisconsin Watch, published Wednesday, found that while police encounters with biting dogs regularly send officers to the emergency room, agencies across the state track and report animal-related force incidents inconsistently to state databases, according to Wisconsin Watch. Aggressive dogs have also drawn national attention in Milwaukee recently: U.S. Postal Service data released in May ranked the city 17th nationally for dog attacks on mail carriers, logging 20 documented bites in 2025, according to the U.S. Postal Service.
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