A Caldwell County family is out nearly $9,000 in animal medical bills after a series of brutal dog attacks. The attacks are the latest in a stretch of violent animal encounters that have plagued the rural county east of San Marcos.
The family's ordeal was also covered by FOX 7 Austin. The attacks add to a broader pattern of dog-related violence in the area.
A County With a History of Loose-Dog Violence
This is not the first time Caldwell County residents have faced down aggressive, roaming dogs. A Lockhart family shot and killed neighboring dogs after repeated attacks.
Dispatch records examined by the station showed more than 45 service calls between neighboring properties near Lockhart from January 2022 to July 2024 alone, covering loose animals, livestock attacks, animal cruelty complaints, and neighbor disputes. The volume of calls points to a chronic problem for local law enforcement trying to keep up with repeated complaints about uncontrolled dogs in the county.
What Texas Law Actually Allows
Texas law gives property owners significant latitude when their animals are under attack. Under Texas Health and Safety Code Section 822.013, anyone who witnesses a dog attacking or about to attack domestic animals or livestock may legally kill the attacking dog without facing civil liability for damages.
Separately, dog owners who knowingly let animals accustomed to chasing or killing pets or livestock run loose can face charges, with fines up to $100 per offense under Section 822.012 — and each instance of a loose dog running at large counts as a separate violation.
A Gap for Pet-on-Pet Attacks
Where Texas law gets more complicated is in cases, like this one, where the victims are pets rather than people. Under Texas's 2007 “Lillian's Law,” codified at Health and Safety Code Section 822.005, a dog owner can face a third-degree felony — punishable by two to 10 years in prison — if criminal negligence in failing to secure a dog leads to an unprovoked attack occurring somewhere other than the owner's property and causing serious bodily injury to a person. That statute, according to the State Bar of Texas, was created after a fatal 2005 attack on a woman in her own yard.
But the state's official “dangerous dog” determinations, found in Health and Safety Code Chapter 822, Subchapter D, apply strictly to unprovoked attacks or threats against humans. That means dogs that kill or injure other pets or livestock are not automatically subject to state dangerous dog registration, leaving local municipalities to rely on separate animal-at-large ordinances to address attacks that target animals instead of people.
Those costs are climbing statewide and nationally. Homeowners insurance payouts for dog bite and animal-related injury claims reached $1.86 billion nationally in 2025 across 28,450 claims, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The average claim cost was $65,450 in 2025, a figure that dwarfs the nearly $9,000 the Caldwell County family has already spent on their own pets' care.
The dog-related incidents point to a county grappling with animal welfare and control issues, even as families like the one in this latest attack are left covering steep bills with limited legal recourse against the dogs' owners.
