The number of dogs
There currently are 89.7 million dogs in the USA, which are kept by 60.2 million households. (American Pet Products Association, Pet Industry Market Size & Ownership Statistics, accessed March 18, 2018.)
The number of victims
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 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18836045.)
Dog bites send nearly 316,200 victims to hospital emergency departments per year (898 per day). (Holmquist, L. (Thomson Reuters), and Elixhauser, A. (AHRQ). Emergency Department Visits and Inpatient Stays Involving Dog Bites, 2008. November 2010. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb101.pdf)
Approximately 750,000 dog bite victims require medical care each year. (J.J. Sacks, M.Kresnow, and B.Houston, Dog Bites: How Big a Problem?, Injury Prevention, March 1996; 2: 52-54, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1067642/.)
In 2015, more than 28,000 reconstructive surgery procedures were performed because of dog bites. (American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2015 Plastic Surgery Statistics, p. 9, http://www.dogsbite.org/pdf/2015-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.)
Dog bites have risen in number and severity since the 1980s
It appears clear that the number of dog bites as well as their severity has risen dramatically since the 1980s.
- There was a 36% increase in medically attended bites from 1986 to 1994. In 1986, 585,000 people 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.)
- There was an 86% increase in hospitalizations because of dog bites from 1993 to 2008. The number went 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, Hospital Admissions for Dog Bites Increase 86 Percent Over a 16-Year Period, Dec. 1, 2010.)
- There was a 10% increase in emergency room visits for new dog bites from 1992 to 2001. From 1992 to 1994, there were 914 dog bite patients per day who were treated in emergency departments across the USA. (Weiss HB, Friedman D, Coben JH, Incidence of dog bite injuries treated in emergency departments. JAMA 1998;279:51-53.) The number increased to 1,008 per day by 2001. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nonfatal Dog Bite–Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments — United States, 2001, MMWR 2003;52:605-610.
- There was an 82% increase in fatal dog attacks from the 1980s to 2012. The average number of canine homicides per year was 17 in the 1980s and 1990s (see below); it has risen to an average of over 31 human deaths per year since 2007, with the number reaching 37 in 2012. There were 33 fatalities in 2007, 23 in 2008, 30 in 2009, 34 in 2010, 31 in 2011, 37 in 2012 and 32 in 2013. (Kenneth M. Phillips, Canine Homicides, a section of Dangerous and Vicious Dogs, dogbitelaw.com, 2013.)
The number of human fatalities caused by dog bites 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; in the past 10 years (2006 to 2015, inclusive) the average has been 35. (Colleen Lynn, Dog Bite Fatalities, http://www.dogsbite.org/dog-bite-statistics-fatalities.php.)
The yearly number of fatal dog attacks in the USA is variously reported as 12, 17 and 26, but this discrepancy 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 35 in the past 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:
- Merritt Clifton, Dog Attack Deaths and Maimings, US and Canada, September 1982 to November 13, 2006, click here to download.
- Colleen Lynn, DogsBite.org. Her site contains details and citations pertaining to all recent fatal dog attacks on humans.
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.) The Clifton study show the number of serious canine-inflicted injuries by breed. Pit bulls stand out as, by far, the most deadly breed, but there are other deadly groups, chiefly the molloser category of breeds, which in addition to pit bulls include Rottweilers, Pres Canarios, Cane Corsos, mastiffs, Dogo Argentinos, Fila Brasieros, Shar-Pei's, boxers, boerboels and their mixes. 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 DogsBite.org. Ms. Lynn's website is a trove of detailed analysis of pit bull mayhem.
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.)
The average cost of a dog bite-related inpatient stay was $18,200, about 50 percent higher than the cost of the average injury-related hospitalization ($12,100). (Laurel Holmquist, M.A., and Anne Elixhauser, Ph.D., Emergency Department Visits and Inpatient Stays Involving Dog Bites, 2008.)
Private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid pay 81% of the medical treatment costs for dog attack victims who are hospitalized, and 75% of the medical treatment costs for those who are not. (Laurel Holmquist, M.A., and Anne Elixhauser, Ph.D., Emergency Department Visits and Inpatient Stays Involving Dog Bites, 2008.)
The impact on private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid is huge because there are approximately 750,000 dog bite victims requiring medical care each year. (J.J. Sacks, M.Kresnow, and B.Houston, Dog Bites: How Big a Problem?, Injury Prevention, March 1996; 2: 52-54.) Of these 750,000, the liability insurers (i.e., homeowners insurance and renters insurance) pay only 16,000 claims in an average year year (Insurance Information Institute, Spotlight on Dog Bite Liability, 2017), leaving the cost of 734,000 victims to private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and the victims themselves.
Dog bites and other dog-related injuries cost homeowners insurance liability companies more than $686 million in 2017, with the average claim costing $37,051. (Insurance Information Institute, Spotlight on Dog Bite Liability, 2017.)
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.
California statistics
According to the California Department of Public Health, Investigation, Mangement, and Prevention of Animal Bites in California (3rd Ed., 2014):
- In 2011, over 50,000 animal bites (136 per 100,000 persons) were reported to local health departments and animal control agencies in California. (P. 2.)
- Between 2006 and 2010, 77 percent of all animal bites reported in California were attributed to domestic dogs. (P. 2.)
- In California, pit bulls account for 29% of all dog bites, putting them at the top of the list of biting dogs, followed by the German Shepherd (15%) and Chihuahua (11%). (P. 2.)
In California, emergency department visits for treatment of dog bites increased from 35,020 in 2010 to 38,657 in 2015. (California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, Dog Bites: Emergency Department Data 2010-2015 (chart).)
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.
Dogsbite.org, the website of Colleen Lynn.
Animals 24/7, the website of Merritt Clifton.
