Dog Bite Law

The dog bite epidemic: a primer 

The number of dogs

There currently are 74.8 million dogs in the USA. (American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey.)

The number of victims

A survey by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta ("CDC") concluded that dogs bite nearly 2% of the U.S. population -- more than 4.7 million people annually. (Sacks JJ, Kresnow M, Houston B. Dog bites: how big a problem? Injury Prev 1996;2:52-4.)

Almost 800,000 bites per year -- one out of every 6 -- are serious enough to require medical attention. (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.

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.

Every year 2,851 letter carriers are bitten. (US Postal Service.)

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, and 30 in 2009.

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.
• Kenneth Phillips, Canine Homicides, a section of Dangerous and Vicious Dogs, at this website. Dog Bite Law and the Dog Bite Law Blog contain details of all USA deaths 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 states

The states that led the death toll in 2007 were Texas (7 deaths, one bite state), Georgia (4 deaths, mixed statute state), and Tennessee (4 deaths, mixed statute state). The highest percentage of deaths occured in the one bite states and the mixed statute states.

The deadliest dogs

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:

If almost any other dog has a bad moment, someone may get bitten, but will not be maimed for life or killed, and the actuarial risk is accordingly reasonable. If a pit bull terrier or a Rottweiler has a bad moment, often someone is maimed or killed--and that has now created off-the-chart actuarial risk, for which the dogs as well as their victims are paying the price.

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 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.)

According to the Insurance Information Institute, dog bites cost insurers $345.5 million in 2002, $321.6 million in 2003, $317.2 million in 2005, $351.4 million in 2006, and $356.2 million in 2007. The number of claims paid by insurers was 20,800 in 2002, but fell to 15,000 by 2005, and 14,500 in 2007. The insurance payment for the average dog bite claim was $16,600 in 2002, but rose to $21,200 in 2005, and rose again to $24,511 in 2006. Liability claims accounted for approximately 4 percent of homeowners claims. Dog bite claims in 2005 accounted for about 15 percent of liability claims dollars paid under homeowners insurance policies.

The Insurance Information Institute has released incorrect information pertaining to the increase in dog bite payouts from 2006 to 2007. Their web page entitled "Dog Bite Liability" states, "In 2007 dog bites cost insurers $356.2 million, up 10.5 percent from the previous year." The reference to 10.5 percent is incorrect. In 2006, insurance payouts were $351.4 million according to their own reports. See the Insurance Information Institute, "Dog Bite Liability," September 29, 2006, which states: "In 2006 dog bites cost insurers $351.4 million, up 10.8 percent from the previous year." In fact, therefore, the increase from 2006 to 2007 was only $4.8 million, or slightly more than 1%. This is nowhere near 10.5 percent.

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. Also available by clicking here.

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 by about 4% between 2002 and 2003.

Also as detailed above, the average number of fatal dog attacks has risen from 17 in the 1980s and 1990s, to 33 deaths in 2007.

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.)

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.

Canine homicides and the dog bite epidemic: do not confuse them 

There have been many news reports about deaths caused by dogs in the USA. The attention given to the homicides has put the spotlight on pit bulls and Rottweilers. There is a very good reason for focusing on these two breeds: in recent years, they have usually been the number one and number two canine killers of humans. (See below, The breeds most likely to kill.) It therefore is correct to single out those two breeds when talking about canine homicides, because those two breeds lately have caused half or more of the deaths -- a disgraceful statistic whether it is regarded as the fault of the dogs, their breeders, their owners, or all three.

However, the focus on death cases may leave the public with the false impression that pit bulls and Rottweilers are responsible for the dog bite epidemic. It is a much broader problem than that, involving all dogs and all dog owners. While pit bulls and Rottweilers inflict a disproportionate number of serious and even fatal injuries, the dog bite epidemic involves many different breeds, and results from many different causes. A clear distinction needs to be made between canine homicides (i.e., incidents in which dogs kill people) and the dog bite epidemic.

The confusion caused by discussing the homicides and the dog bites in the same breath has its most important ramification in the area of prevention. Some are advocating the banning of pit bulls, Rottweilers and possibly other breeds, for reasons that range from their alleged dangerousness to the fact that they are very often treated inhumanely. Those who hear about the homicides often support breed bans. (See Breed Specific Laws, Regulations and Bans.)

However, while banning the pit bull might lower the number of human deaths, such a ban would probably not reduce the number dog bites in any significant manner. After the United Kingdom banned pit bulls in the 1990s, a study showed that the number of dog bites remained the same even though the number of pit bulls had steeply declined. (Study cited in B. Heady and P. Krause, "Health Benefits and Potential Public Savings Due to Pets: Australian and German Survey Results," Australian Social Monitor, Vol.2, No.2, May 1999.) However, there are serious deficiencies in how dog bites are studied, making it difficult to know for certain whether a pit bull ban would reduce dog bites in general. (See Dangerous and Vicious Dogs: the Problem With Statistics.)

As a practical matter, the current tide of public outrage should be focused on the enactment of measures that would deal effectively with the entire epidemic, not merely the breeds that kill. It would appear unwise to enact all kinds of controls on one or two breeds, not necessarily because it would be unfair, but because it would produce narrow and therefore unsatisfactory results. The war against crime isn't a war against just the bank robbers, but against all criminals; the war against drugs isn't a war against just the Colombian drug lords, but all drug lords. For the same reason, the dog bite epidemic must not focus on just one or two breeds and stop there. The war on this epidemic must be comprehensive. (See Attorney Kenneth Phillips' 10-point plan for Preventing Dog Bites.)

The breeds most likely to kill 

In recent years, the dogs responsible for the bulk of the homicides are pit bulls and Rottweilers:

"Studies indicate that pit bull-type dogs were involved in approximately a third of human DBRF (i.e., dog bite related fatalities) reported during the 12-year period from 1981 through1992, and Rottweilers were responsible for about half of human DBRF reported during the 4 years from 1993 through 1996....[T]he data indicate that Rottweilers and pit bull-type dogs accounted for 67% of human DBRF in the United States between 1997 and 1998. It is extremely unlikely that they accounted for anywhere near 60% of dogs in the United States during that same period and, thus, there appears to be a breed-specific problem with fatalities." (Sacks JJ, Sinclair L, Gilchrist J, Golab GC, Lockwood R. Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979 and 1998. JAVMA 2000;217:836-840.) 

The Clifton study of attacks from 1982 through 2006 produced similar results. According to Clifton study, pit bulls, Rottweilers, Presa Canarios and their mixes were responsible for 65% of the canine homicides that occurred during a period of 24 years in the USA. (Clifton, Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, September 1982 to November 13, 2006; click here to read it.)

Other breeds were also responsible for homicides, but to a much lesser extent. A 1997 study of dog bite fatalities in the years 1979 through 1996 revealed that the following breeds had killed one or more persons: pit bulls, Rottweilers, German shepherds, huskies, Alaskan malamutes, Doberman pinschers, chows, Great Danes, St. Bernards and Akitas. (Dog Bite Related Fatalities," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, May 30, 1997, Vol. 46, No. 21, pp. 463 et. seq.) Since 1975, fatal attacks have been attributed to dogs from at least 30 breeds.

The most horrifying example of the lack of breed predictability is the October 2000 death of a 6-week-old baby, which was killed by her family's Pomeranian dog. The average weight of a Pomeranian is about 4 pounds, and they are not thought of as a dangerous breed. Note, however, that they were bred to be watchdogs! The baby's uncle left the infant and the dog on a bed while the uncle prepared her bottle in the kitchen. Upon his return, the dog was mauling the baby, who died shortly afterwards. ("Baby Girl Killed by Family Dog," Los Angeles Times, Monday, October 9, 2000, Home Edition, Metro Section, Page B-5.)

In Canine homicides and the dog bite epidemic: do not confuse them, it has been pointed out that the dog bite epidemic as a whole involves all dogs and all dog owners, not just the breeds most likely to kill.

In all fairness, therefore, it must be noted that:

• Any dog, treated harshly or trained to attack, may bite a person. Any dog can be turned into a dangerous dog. The owner or handler most often is responsible for making a dog into something dangerous. 

• An irresponsible owner or dog handler might create a situation that places another person in danger by a dog, without the dog itself being dangerous, as in the case of the Pomeranian that killed the infant (see above). 

• Any individual dog may be a good, loving pet, even though its breed is considered to be potentially dangerous. A responsible owner can win the love and respect of a dog, no matter its breed. One cannot look at an individual dog, recognize its breed, and then state whether or not it is going to attack. 

To learn more about dog attacks, see Why dogs bite people To learn about how to take some of the bite out of the dog bite epidemic, see Attorney Kenneth Phillips' 10-point plan for Preventing Dog Bites.

Children are the most frequent targets 

• The median age of patients bitten was 15 years, with children, especially boys aged 5 to 9 years, having the highest incidence rate
• The odds that a bite victim will be a child are 3.2 to 1. (CDC.)
• Children seen in emergency departments were more likely than older persons to be bitten on the face, neck, and head. 77% of injuries to children under 10 years old are facial.
• Severe injuries occur almost exclusively in children less than 10 years of age.
• The majority of dog attacks (61%) happen at home or in a familiar place. 
• The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to the victim's family or a friend. 
• When a child less than 4 years old is the victim, the family dog was the attacker half the time (47%), and the attack almost always happened in the family home (90%). 

The face is the most frequent target 

• Dog bites result in approximately 44,000 facial injuries in US hospitals each year. This represents between 0.5% and 1.5% of all emergency room visits
• The face is the most frequent target (77% of all injures). Mail carriers are an exception where 97% involve the lower extremities.
• The central target area for the face includes the lips, nose, and cheeks.

www.dogbitelaw.com and each of its sections and products, including Dog Bite Law, The Dog Bite Law Adviser, Dog Bite Litigation Forms, What To Do If Your Dog Is Injured Or Killed, Avoiding Liability When You Train, Shelter or Adopt-Out, Anatomy of a Dog Bite Case, and the foregoing text, are (c) 1999-2010 Kenneth M. Phillips. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part prohibited except where advance permission is granted in writing. Please read the disclaimer and our rules for linking and quoting. Reporters seeking interviews are welcome to contact us by clicking here.