Rhode Island General Laws Title 4. Animals and Animal Husbandry § 4-13.1-7. Action for damages--Destruction of offending vicious dog

If any dog declared vicious under § 4-13.1-11, when unprovoked, kills or wounds, or assists in killing or wounding, any domestic animal, belonging to or in the possession of any person, or, when unprovoked, attacks, assaults, bites, or otherwise injures any human being or assists in attacking, assaulting, biting or otherwise injuring any human being while out of or within the enclosure of the owner or keeper of the vicious dog, or while otherwise on or off the property of the owner or keeper whether or not the vicious dog was on a leash and securely muzzled or whether the vicious dog escaped without fault of the owner or keeper, the owner or keeper of the dog may be liable to the person aggrieved for all damage sustained, to be recovered in a civil action, with costs of suit. It is rebuttably presumed as a matter of law that the owning, keeping, or harboring of a dog that has been declared vicious in violation of this chapter is a nuisance. It shall not be necessary, in order to sustain any action, to prove that the owner or keeper of a dog that has been declared vicious knew that the dog that has been declared vicious possessed the propensity to cause this damage or that the dog had a vicious nature.