Wisconsin Code § 174.12

Actions against owners
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(1) The allowance by a
county of any claim for damages done by dogs constitutes an assignment to the county of the cause of the action of the claimant
for which the claim is filed, and the county may sue and recover
from the owner of the dog or dogs doing the damages the full
amount thereof and which shall not be limited to the sum paid the
claimant by the county. The allowance under s. 174.11 (2) (c) by
an intergovernmental commission of any claim for damages done
by dogs constitutes an assignment to the intergovernmental commission of the cause of the action of the claimant for which the
claim is filed, and the intergovernmental commission may sue

and recover from the owner of the dog or dogs doing the damages
the full amount thereof and which shall not be limited to the sum
paid the claimant by the intergovernmental commission. Before
any claim shall be allowed by a county or an intergovernmental
commission on account of damages done by dogs, the claimant
shall furnish satisfactory proof that the damage was not done in
whole or in part by any dog owned, kept, or harbored by the
claimant.
(2) No claim shall be allowed by a county board or an intergovernmental commission at less than the amount so certified
and reported, unless the claimant shall first be notified that such
action is contemplated and shall have been given a reasonable opportunity to be heard and to offer further evidence in support of
the claimant’s claim.
(3) This chapter shall not in any way limit the existing right or
authority of any town, village or city to pass ordinances for the
keeping and regulating of dogs, or repeal or annul any existing
statute or ordinance or local regulation governing the keeping and
regulating of dogs; but on and after July 1, 1920, no town, village
or city shall pass any ordinance for the licensing of dogs, and all
town, village or city ordinances and local regulations licensing
dogs then in force shall be null and void.
(4) No person except the owner or the owner’s authorized
agent shall remove any license tag from a dog collar or remove
any collar with a license attached thereto from any dog. No person shall keep or harbor a dog wearing a fictitious, altered or invalid license tag, or a license tag not issued in connection with the
licensing or keeping of the dog wearing the same. No license or
license tag issued for one dog shall be transferable to another dog.
Every town, village or city treasurer shall notify the district attorney of that treasurer’s county of every refusal or failure of an
owner to obtain a license for keeping the owner’s dog and it shall
be the duty of the district attorney to institute proceedings against
such owner and against every owner within the district attorney’s
county who has violated any of the provisions of the dog license
law.
(5) Dogs brought into the state temporarily for a period not to
exceed 30 days if kept confined or in leash shall be exempt from
this chapter.
(6) The provisions of this chapter relating to the licensing of
dogs and the provisions for the payment of claims out of the dog
license fund for damages done by dogs are severable and the provisions relating to such payment of claims are not an inducement
to the enactment of any other provisions of this chapter.

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