When any person is bitten or attacked by a dog or other animal
subject to rabies or other like contagious or dangerous disease, such
person, his parents, or guardian, if he is a minor, the owner of the
animal, or the person having possession or control thereof, the physician
who treats the bite or wound and any veterinarian or layperson having
knowledge of such bite or wound must immediately notify the Police
Department. The person owning or having possession or control of the
offending animal must (at the request of the Police Department or
Health Department) immediately provide for the examination and observation
of such animal by a licensed veterinarian of the State of New Jersey.
Said veterinarian shall immediately report his findings to the local
Board of Health with jurisdiction where the person who was bitten
resides, by telephone and shall fill out the required form, within
12 hours of medical treatment.
After such preliminary examination, the animal may be returned
to the custody of the person from whom it was received for confinement
for 10 days. If the animal has inflicted a face bite, it shall not
be returned, but shall be confined for 10 days in a veterinary hospital
or other place approved by the Board. An animal must be returned after
preliminary examination for reexamination (or brought for initial
examination 10 days from the date of the bite) to a licensed veterinarian
of the State of New Jersey, and said veterinarian shall report his
findings to the Board immediately by telephone and in writing within
12 hours. The animal shall then be released to the person from whom
it was received unless the animal is rabid or suspected of being rabid.
