DOG BITE LAW

The dog bite epidemic: a primer

The number of dogs

There currently are 83.3 million dogs in the USA. (American Pet Products Association, press release entitled New Survey Reveals Pet Ownership At An All-Time High, February 21, 2013.)

56.7 million households in the USA own a dog. (American Pet Products Association, press release entitled New Survey Reveals Pet Ownership At An All-Time High, February 21, 2013.)

The number of victims

The most recent USA survey of dog bites, conducted by CDC researchers and based on data collected during 2001-2003, concluded that dogs bite 4.5 million Americans 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 Bite Prevention, accessed May 20, 2013.) A study 15 years ago put the number at 800,000. (Weiss HB, Friedman D, Coben JH. Incidence of dog bite injuries treated in emergency departments. JAMA 1998;279:51-53.)

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. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is published by the CDC.

The number of Americans who had to be hospitalized as a result of dog bites went up 86% in the past 16 years, from 5,100 hospitalizations in 1993, to 9,500 in 2008. The average cost of treatment was $18,200 per patient. The patients generally were kids under 5 years old and seniors over 65. (US Dept. of Health and Human Services.)

In 2006, more than 31,000 people underwent reconstructive surgery as a result of being bitten by dogs. (Centers for Disease Control, Dog Bite Prevention, accessed May 20, 2013.)

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.

An American has a one in 50 chance of being bitten by a dog each year. (CDC.)

The number of fatalities

The following charts show (a) in column 1, the total number of fatal dog maulings in the USA for the year specified (the complete list, showing names, dates and locations, is found at Canine Homicides, a section of Dangerous and Vicious Dogs, at this website), (b) in columns 2, 3 and 4, the type of law which existed in the state (i.e., strict liability of some sort, the one bite rule, or a mixture of the two; for an explanation of these types of laws, see Legal Rights of Dog Bite Victims).

The number of fatalities is rising

The number of fatal dog attacks in the USA has been going up. The yearly average was 17 in the 1980s and 1990s; as stated above, there were 33 deaths in 2007, 23 in 2008, 30 in 2009, and 34 in 2010.

The statistics on fatal attacks are more accurate, and more current, than those on dog bites in general. Researchers have to be careful to use current numbers when reporting about canine homicides, because of the sharp increase over the past decade. 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 study 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 study nevertheless is the source of the oft-cited and misquoted statistic that there are only 12 deaths per year; the footnote is routinely ignored.

The study itself referred to two prior studies for the purpose of providing a bigger and more accurate picture. The prior studies were published by JAMA and Pediatrics. (Sacks JJ, Sattin RW, Bonzo SE. Dog bite-related fatalities from 1979 through 1988. JAMA 1989;262:1489-92. Sacks JJ, Lockwood R, Hornreich J, Sattin RW. Fatal dog attacks, 1989-1994. Pediatrics 1996;97:891-5.) JAMA is the official journal of the American Medical Association, and Pediatrics is the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics; both are considered to be authoritative publications, which is one reason why the CDC relied upon them. These three studies, taken together, showed that from 1979 to 1996, 304 people in the USA died from dog attacks. The average number of deaths per year was therefore 17. This conforms with the footnote in the 1997 study, too.

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:

• Merritt Clifton, Dog Attack Deaths and Maimings, US and Canada, September 1982 to November 13, 2006, click here to download.
• Karen Delise, Fatal Dog Attacks: The Stories Behind the Statistics, 2002, self published, available for purchase by clicking here.
• Colleen Lynn, DogsBite.org. Her site contains details and citations pertaining to all recent fatal dog attacks on humans.
• Kenneth Phillips, Canine Homicides, a section of Dangerous and Vicious Dogs, at this website. It provides a short description of each USA death from June 2006 to the current date.

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.

It should be noted that fatalities are highly unusual. In the United States, there is only one fatal attack for each 151,000 victims. Nevertheless, what they lack in frequency, these canine homicides make up for in horror, grief and loss.

The deadliest dogs

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."

The areas of the body that are bitten

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.)

The financial impact of dog bites

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.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, the average cost of dog bite claims was $26,166 in 2010, up 5.3 percent from $24,840 in 2009. From 2003 to 2010, the cost of these claims has risen nearly 37 percent. The number of claims however, has dropped 4.9 percent from 16,586 in 2009 to 15,770 in 2010. The total value of these claims has remained virtually unchanged from 2009 to 2010 (+0.15 percent). This is because a decline in the number of claims was almost exactly offset by an increase in the average cost. (Insurance Information Institute press release, May 2011.)

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.) 

Dog bites have risen in the past 20 years

It appears clear that the number of dog bites has risen dramatically in the past 20 years. Despite the fact that the number of dogs in the United States increased by only 2% between 1991 and 1998 (Wise JK & Yang JJ, "Dog and Cat Ownership, 1991-1998," JAMA 1994;204:1166-67), the number of bites and the cost to insurance companies rose significantly. For example, in 1986 nonfatal dog bites resulted in an estimated 585,000 injuries that required medical attention or restricted activity (Sosin DM, Sachs JJ, Sattin RW. Causes of nonfatal injuries in the United States, 1986. Accid. Anal. Prev. 1992;24:685-687) but by 1994 an estimated 800,000 sought medical care for bites. (Weiss HB, Friedman D, Coben JH. Incidence of dog bite injuries treated in emergency departments. JAMA 1998;279:51-53.) This is a 36% increase in medically attended bites from 1986 to 1994.

As stated above, the cost to insurance companies, measured only by homeowner claims (as opposed to health insurance claims and claims on other lines) grew significantly over the past decade, even though it dipped between 2002 and 2008. The period of 2006 through 2009 was remarkable: the value of claims went from $322.30 million to $412.00 million.

Also as summarized above, hospitalizations because of dog bites increased 88% over the past 16 years. (US Dept. of Health and Human Services.) Whether this is because of the number of bites or their severity, however, is unknown from the study.

Also as detailed above, the average number of fatal dog attacks has risen from 17 in the 1980s and 1990s, to 34 deaths in 2010.

The scene of the attack

Over 50 percent of the bites occur on the dog owner's property. (See Insurance Information Institute, Dog Bite Liability, accessed 8/30/07.)

Dogs bite family and friends

The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to the victim's family or a friend.

Worldwide problem

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.

For more information

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.

See the links to Karen Delise and Colleen Lynn, above. They and Merrit Clifton have ongoing studies of the dog bite problem and have different points of view as to its cause, significance and effect.