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Title: Programmed to bite: The growing epidemic of dog attacks
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Published: Oct 6, 2016
Author: Gatlin
Post Date: 2016-10-06 09:52:51 by Gatlin
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Views: 847
Dog attacks on the serious end of the spectrum need to become the focus of increasing media and public attention. The number of dog attacks need to finally be given attention to gain legal momentum where owners who are found negligent and in-part responsible will be held fully responsible. Significant dog bites affect millions of people each year. There currently are 83.3 million dogs in the USA, which are kept by 56.7 million households. (American Pet Products Association, 2013-2014 APPA National Pet Owners Survey Statistics: Pet Ownership & Annual Expenses.) The most recent USA survey of dog bites conducted by CDC researchers concluded that in 2001, 2002 and 2003 there were 4.5 million American dog bite victims per year (1.5% of the entire population). Sacks JJ, Kresnow M. Dog bites: still a problem? Injury Prevention 2008 Oct;14(5):296-301. 885,000 bites per year -- almost one out of every 5 -- are serious enough to require medical attention. (Centers for Disease Control, Dog Bites, accessed May 10, 2014.) Dog bites send nearly 368,000 victims to hospital emergency departments per year (1,008 per day). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nonfatal Dog Bite–Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments — United States, 2001, MMWR 2003;52:605-610. In 2012, more than 27,000 people underwent reconstructive surgery as a result of being bitten by dogs. (Centers for Disease Control, Dog Bites, accessed May 10, 2014, quoting from American Society of Plastic Surgeons. 2012 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report [online]. 2012. [cited 2013 Oct 24]. Available from URL: http://www.plasticsurgery.org/Documents/news- resources/statistics/2012-Plastic-Surgery-Statistics/full-plastic-surgery- statistics-report.pdf.) 16,476 dog bites to persons aged 16 years or greater were work related in 2001. (Ibid., Nonfatal Dog Bite–Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments — United States, 2001, MMWR 2003;52:608. 5,900 letter carriers were bitten in 2012. (US Postal Service.) Los Angeles is the worst city in the USA for mail carrier dog bites. (Read the article.) Getting bitten by a dog is the fifth most frequent cause of visits to emergency rooms caused by activities common among children. (See Weiss HB, Friedman DI, Coben JH. Incidence of dog bite injuries treated in emergency departments, JAMA 1998;279:53; also see US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Injuries associated with selected sports and recreational equipment treated in hospital emergency departments, calendar year 1994. Consumer Product Safety Review, Summer 1996;1:5.) Note that this comparison is limited to activities that children more or less voluntarily engage in, such as playing sports, playing with animals, etc. Dog bite injuries are not specifically set forth in Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, Child Injury and Mortality, pp. 36, 37, 136 and 137, which states that the leading causes of emergency room visits overall are falls, being struck by or against an object, natural or environmental causes, poisening, being cut or pierced, and motor vehicle accident. It appears clear that the number of dog bites as well as their severity has risen dramatically since the 1980s. The number of fatal dog attacks in the USA has been going up. The yearly average was 17 in the 1980s and 1990s; in the past 6 years, the average has been 31. The yearly number of fatal dog attacks in the USA is variously reported as 12, 17 and 26, but this discrepency is caused by citing studies which took place in different years. It is most accurate to say that the average number was 17 in the 1980s and 1990s, and that it has risen to over 30 in this decade. The article mentioning 12 deaths per year was published by CDC as Dog-Bite- Related Fatalities -- United States, 1995-1996, MMWR 46(21):463-467, 1997. It related that there were 25 documented deaths in 1995 and 1996 (i.e., 12.5 per year), but a footnote said that the figure 25 probably represented only 75% of the actual number of dog bite related fatalities. This article nevertheless is the source of the oft-cited and misquoted statistic that there are only 12 deaths per year; the footnote is always ignored. This is especially puzzling because the same article cited two prior studies: Sacks JJ, Sattin RW, Bonzo SE. Dog bite- related fatalities from 1979 through 1988, JAMA 1989;262:1489-92, and Sacks JJ, Lockwood R, Hornreich J, Sattin RW. Fatal dog attacks, 1989-1994. Pediatrics 1996;97:891-5. Taken together, the three articles show that from 1979 to 1996, 304 people in the USA died from dog attacks, making the average number of deaths per year 17. Therefore, it is more accurate to summarize the publications as showing that the average number of deaths during the 18-year period of 1979 to 1996 was 17, despite the fact that the CDC itself routinely says the figure is 12, ignoring the footnote mentioned above. More recent information about fatal dog attacks is found in publications by individuals, not governmental agencies: This web site, Dog Bite Law, contains verifiable information about Americans who are killed by dogs, including name, date and place. The summaries of every fatal mauling are derived from accounts in the media which were available for viewing on the Internet at the time each summary was written, making each verifiable by using Google or the Internet Archive. The log which appears on Canine Homicides started in July 2006 and is current to this date. A review of 82 dog bite cases at a level 1 trauma center where the breed of dog was identified concludes that attacks by pit bulls are associated with higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than are attacks by other breeds of dogs. Bini, John K. MD; Cohn, Stephen M. MD; Acosta, Shirley M. RN, BSN; McFarland, Marilyn J. RN, MS; Muir, Mark T. MD; Michalek, Joel E. PhD; for the TRISAT Clinical Trials Group, Mortality, Mauling, and Maiming by Vicious Dogs, Annals of Surgery (April 2011, Vol. 253, Issue 4, pp. 791–797). Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People, has conducted an unusually detailed study of dog bites from 1982 to the present. (Clifton, Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, September 1982 to November 13, 2006; click here to read it.) The Clifton study show the number of serious canine- inflicted injuries by breed. The author's observations about the breeds and generally how to deal with the dangerous dog problem are enlightening. According to the Clifton study, pit bulls, Rottweilers, Presa Canarios and their mixes are responsible for 74% of attacks that were included in the study, 68% of the attacks upon children, 82% of the attacks upon adults, 65% of the deaths, and 68% of the maimings. In more than two-thirds of the cases included in the study, the life-threatening or fatal attack was apparently the first known dangerous behavior by the animal in question. Clifton states: Clifton's opinions are as interesting as his statistics. For example, he says, "Pit bulls and Rottweilers are accordingly dogs who not only must be handled with special precautions, but also must be regulated with special requirements appropriate to the risk they may pose to the public and other animals, if they are to be kept at all." Clifton's website is Animals 24/7 and his compendium of pit bull information is titled Pit Bull Statistics. He is one of the top two researchers in the USA pertaining to pit bulls, the other being Colleen Lynn whose website is Dogs Bite. Ms. Lynn's entire website is devoted to detailed analysis of pit bull mayhem. Judging only by hospital admissions, 43 percent of people hospitalized for dog bites required treatment for skin and underlying tissue infection; 22 percent had wounds of the legs or arms; 10.5 percent had wounds of the head, neck and torso; and the remaining patients had problems ranging from bone fracture to blood poisoning. (US Dept. of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.) Dog attack victims in the US suffer over $1 billion in monetary losses every year. ("Take the bite out of man's best friend." State Farm Times, 1998;3(5):2.) That $1 billion estimate might be low -- an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that, in 1995, State Farm paid $70 million on 11,000 claims and estimated that the total annual insurance cost for dog bites was about $2 billion. (Voelker R. "Dog bites recognized as public health problem." JAMA 1997;277:278,280.) Researchers from the CDC estimated that the direct medical costs of dog bites per year equaled $164.9 million in the USA toward the end of the 1990s. Quinlan KP, Sacks JJ. Hospitalizations for Dog Bite Injuries [letter] JAMA 1999; 281:232-233. Dog bites accounted for more than one-third of all homeowners insurance liability claim dollars paid out in 2012, costing more than $489 million, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) and State Farm, the largest writer of homeowners insurance in the United States. The average cost paid out for dog bite claims was $29,752 in 2012. From 2003 to 2012 the cost of the average dog bite claim increased by 55.3 percent. (Average Number of Dog Bite Claims Falls in 2012; Claims Costs Still on the Rise, Increasing by More Than 50 Percent Since 2003, Insurance Information Institute, May 2013.) In 2010, State Farm Insurance Company paid 3,500 dog bite claims throughout the USA made uder homeowners insurance policies. The average payout was $25,714, for a total of $90 million. During the same period, the company paid 369 dog bite claims in California under homeowners policies. The average in California was $29,810 per claim -- 16% higher than the national average. The company paid a total of $11 million for such claims during that period. (State Farm press release, May 10, 2011.) Over 50 percent of the bites occur on the dog owner's property. (See Insurance Information Institute, Dog Bite Liability, accessed 8/30/07.) The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to the victim's family or a friend. The USA is not the only country with the dog bite problem. In Britain, the number of people being admitted to accident and emergency (A&E, called the "emergency room" or "ER" in the USA) as a result of dog attacks has risen by 43 per cent in the last four years. Hospitalisation of children and young people has risen by a fifth, while 58 per cent more adults are being admitted to A&E due to attacks by dogs. In London there has been a 119 per cent rise in hospitalisation of under-18s as a result of dog attacks. (Read the articles in the Evening Standard and on inthenews.co.uk.) Canadian statistics are contained in Injuries Associated With Dog Bites and Dog Attacks, from CHIRPP (Canada). Australian statistics are summarized in The public health impact of dog attacks in a major Australian city, from The Medical Journal of Australia. Medscape has a table showing the number of dog bite fatalities by state. Interested in extraordinary detail about the who, what, when and where (but not breeds) associated with dog bites? Very informative and detailed data are contained in Injuries Associated With Dog Bites and Dog Attacks, from CHIRPP (Canada). One of the most detailed studies of dog attacks in the USA is Clifton, Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, September 1982 to November 13, 2006. A great souce of statistical information about nonfatal dog bites is Nonfatal Dog Bite- Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments - United States, 2001. This appeared in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (July 4, 2003 / 52(26);605-610), a publication of the Centers for Disease Control. Texas Department of Health, 1999 Severe Animal Attack and Bite Surveillance Summary. This document provides interesting details about severe dog bite accidents in Texas. https://dogbitelaw.com/dog-bite-statistics/all-dog-bite- statistics.
(1 image)All Dog Bite Statistics
The number of dogs
The number of victims
Dog bites have risen in number and severity since the 1980s
The number of human fatalities caused by dog bites is rising
The deadliest dogs
The areas of the body that are bitten
The financial impact of dog bites
The scene of the attack
Dogs bite family and friends
Worldwide problem
For more information
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