If the dog attacked someone, unprovoked, I would take responsibility for it and do what was required upto and including having it put down. My dogs are members of the family, but they are also a form of protection and will alert us when someone who doesn't belong shows up on our property.
BW, how was my neighbor a jerk? She reprimanded her child, a toddler at the time, by swatting him on the diaper for teasing an animal.