My dog is my family too. And losing Nikita would be devistating. But money is not going to bring her back.
If something like this happened and it really was an accident, I would
TRY to be the bigger man.
And, it was a mixed breed dog so you can't count this one up to genetics. It truly might have just been an awful accident.
-- And saying the owner did nothing while the one dog attacked, I can tell you from experience, having seen too many dog fights and one with a dog even dying, sometimes when dogs start fighting there is a "shock" that overcomes people. They don't know what to do. Both dogs are biting and snarling. The ones that usually run in and try to break it up usually get bit.
Sometimes the best thing to do is stand back and hope your dog can defend itself.
then, instead of trying to grab your dog by the collar where the other dog is trying to bite, grab your dog (or the other dog) by it's hind legs and drag it away.
I know I walk a fine line on this dog fence thing, sometimes it may seem I am a liitle liberal others a little conservative and it's true, most cases are different. You can't prevent dogs fighting, that is why VERY aggressive breeds should require licenses, because they have a bad history with breed violence.
But individual dogs and fights, sometimes this stuff just happens. And all the litigation in the world ain't going to fix it.
B