Narrative:

About 10 minutes into cruise flight the flight attendants called and reported a female passenger would not keep her dog in its carrier and that the dog had bitten the 1st flight attendant and a first class passenger and that the passenger was bleeding from a deep gash. About 5 minutes later the flight attendants reported the dog had chewed a hole through its carrier and could not be contained and that the female passenger had no control over her dog. The flight attendants said that they did not believe medlink was necessary for any of the bites and that they had opened the first aid kit to treat the passenger's cut. The bitten passenger made it clear he did not want medical attention.we informed dispatch of all the above and since we had a biting dog on the loose with no safe place to keep him plus the owner had no control over the dog and refused multiple times to comply with crew instructions to keep the dog in the carrier we told dispatch we were requesting a diversion into ZZZ1. Dispatch agreed and we informed the flight attendants and the passengers of our intentions. The first class passenger who was bitten did not want us to divert and did not want medical attention. To be on the safe side we requested through dispatch to have the paramedics meet the aircraft plus someone with a pet carrier to contain the dog who was described as a wiener type dog.we made a 142;000 pound/250 FPM overweight landing and when we arrived at the gate the dog was contained in a carrier and probably placed in quarantine. I believe the medics took a look at our passenger. The flight attendants bite was just a scratch; so she did not have the paramedics look at her. The flight attendants supervisor wanted her to be checked out before she flew again; but she informed them it was just a scratch and the supervisor said it was ok to proceed to ZZZ2 and she could get it looked at there. Someone had made the decision to have the female passenger who owned the dog removed from the flight. I'm not sure who that was but that sounded good to me and it was already a done deal by the time I was informed of it.we had maintenance replace the first aid kit and sign off the overweight landing. We refueled and with new paperwork pushed off the gate. As we were away from the gate we noticed 3 police vehicles one of which was a K9 unit. On the taxi out we were informed by operations that the police had confirmed that the dog was current on all its shots. We passed that information on to the flight attendants later in the flight and they also informed the bitten passenger.later in the flight the flight attendants reported to us that many passengers commented that while they were in the boarding area in ZZZ1 they observed the female passenger having great difficulty controlling her dog and even had one report that the dog had bitten the gate agent. I have no idea if this is true or not. The rest of the flight was uneventful and we blocked into the gate in ZZZ one hour and eight minutes late.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A319 diverted to a nearby airport for an overweight landing when a passenger's dog escaped from its carrier and bit a Flight Attendant and another passenger. The dog and its owner were deplaned and the victims received medical attention before continuing to their destination.

Narrative: About 10 minutes into cruise flight the Flight Attendants called and reported a female passenger would not keep her dog in its carrier and that the dog had bitten the 1st Flight Attendant and a first class passenger and that the passenger was bleeding from a deep gash. About 5 minutes later the Flight Attendants reported the dog had chewed a hole through its carrier and could not be contained and that the female passenger had no control over her dog. The Flight Attendants said that they did not believe Medlink was necessary for any of the bites and that they had opened the first aid kit to treat the passenger's cut. The bitten passenger made it clear he did not want medical attention.We informed Dispatch of all the above and since we had a biting dog on the loose with no safe place to keep him plus the owner had no control over the dog and refused multiple times to comply with crew instructions to keep the dog in the carrier we told Dispatch we were requesting a diversion into ZZZ1. Dispatch agreed and we informed the Flight Attendants and the passengers of our intentions. The first class passenger who was bitten did not want us to divert and did not want medical attention. To be on the safe side we requested through Dispatch to have the paramedics meet the aircraft plus someone with a pet carrier to contain the dog who was described as a wiener type dog.We made a 142;000 LB/250 FPM overweight landing and when we arrived at the gate the dog was contained in a carrier and probably placed in quarantine. I believe the medics took a look at our passenger. The Flight Attendants bite was just a scratch; so she did not have the paramedics look at her. The Flight Attendants Supervisor wanted her to be checked out before she flew again; but she informed them it was just a scratch and the Supervisor said it was OK to proceed to ZZZ2 and she could get it looked at there. Someone had made the decision to have the female passenger who owned the dog removed from the flight. I'm not sure who that was but that sounded good to me and it was already a done deal by the time I was informed of it.We had Maintenance replace the first aid kit and sign off the overweight landing. We refueled and with new paperwork pushed off the gate. As we were away from the gate we noticed 3 police vehicles one of which was a K9 unit. On the taxi out we were informed by operations that the police had confirmed that the dog was current on all its shots. We passed that information on to the Flight Attendants later in the flight and they also informed the bitten passenger.Later in the flight the Flight Attendants reported to us that many passengers commented that while they were in the boarding area in ZZZ1 they observed the female passenger having great difficulty controlling her dog and even had one report that the dog had bitten the gate agent. I have no idea if this is true or not. The rest of the flight was uneventful and we blocked into the gate in ZZZ one hour and eight minutes late.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.