Fatal dog attacks in the United States are a small percentage of the relatively common occurrences of dog bites. At least 4.5 - 4.7 million Americans are bitten by dogs every year and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 20 to 30 of these bites result in death.
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Existing studies
There are a limited number of studies concerning the number of human deaths caused by dogs in the United States, and the number of attributed fatalities is difficult to validate or cross-compare with other study results because:
- studies dependent on surveying news reports may not find all the relevant news items
- different studies use different data collection methodologies and evaluation criteria
- breed identification requires a subjective evaluation based on observation of outward physical attributes against imprecise breed standards.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 1974-1975
The first epidemiological study of dog-bite fatalities in the United States was conducted by an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1977. The study reported that all but one of the cases involved male dogs. The breeds reported in these incidents were St. Bernard, German Shepherd, Dachshund, Basenji, Collie, Husky, and Great Dane. Most incidents involved victims who were smaller or weaker than the dog. Thus, children under 5 years old accounted for the majority of victims. The study concluded that human behavior which the dogs perceived as threatening was the single most important factor contributing to these incidents.
University of Texas Study: 1966-1980
A study conducted at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School identified 74 fatal dog bites during the period 1966-1980 from news media and medical literature.
Most fatalities were young children, including 23 infants under 1 year old. In most cases, the dog was owned by the victim's family. In only 3 of the incidents was the dog reported to have been provoked by kicking, hitting, or having stones thrown at it. However, several incidents involved a child attempting to pet or hug the dog.
In 6 of the incidents, there was no information available about the kind of dogs involved. In ten fatal attacks, the dogs were only described as "mixed-breed".
Many involved large and powerful molosser breeds: eight Saint Bernards, six Bull terriers, six Great Danes, two Boxers and a Rottweiler. In contrast to the time period covered other studies, the researchers found no fatal attacks attributed to any pit bulls at all.
Spitz and primitive dogs committed a significant minority of the attacks, mostly sled dog breeds (nine Husky breeds and five Malamutes), one Chow Chow and a Basenji.
Fatal herding and working breed attacks numbered sixteen, twelve German Shepherd attacks, two collie attacks, and two involving a Doberman pinscher.
There were multiple retriever attacks, including three Golden Retrievers and a Labrador, and two attacks by very small breeds: one Dachshund, and one Yorkshire Terrier, which is among the smallest of all dogs.
Wilderness & Environmental Medicine: 1979-2005
This 27-year study collected data from the CDC Wide-Ranging OnLine Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) program. It looked at cases in which the cause of death according to International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes was dog bites. It did not include fatalities secondary to an infection from a bite. During those 27 years, the study found 504 deaths due to dog bites. They estimated that there were likely many additional deaths due to dog bites that were not reported by the CDC WONDER program.
They found that the most of the victims were male (58.1%). Alaska had by far the greatest incidence per capita at 11.83 deaths per 10 million population. The rest of the states ranged from 0 to 2.56 deaths per 10 million population. The majority of victims (55.6%) were less than 10 years old. Regarding race of the victim, they found that 14.3% of the victims were black, despite the fact that only 3% of dog owners are black. 2005 had the most attacks during the study, with 33 deaths. 2003 had the next most with 32, reflecting the fact that populations of both humans and dogs increased during the study period.
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association: 2000-2009
The most recent study of the epidemiology of fatal dog bites in the United States was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2013. While earlier studies were based on television and newspaper reports, this was the first study to be based on law-enforcement reports, animal control reports, and investigator statements. It identified preventable factors in the fatal incidents. They found that the most common contributing factors were: absence of an able-bodied person to intervene, no familiar relationship of victims with dogs, owner failure to neuter dogs, compromised ability of victims to interact appropriately with dogs (e.g. mental disabilities), dogs kept isolated from regular positive human interactions versus family dogs (e.g. dogs kept chained in backyards), owners' prior mismanagement of dogs, and owners' history of abuse or neglect of dogs. Furthermore, they found that in 80% of the incidents, 4 or more of the above factors co-occurred.
The authors found that in a significant number of DBRFs there was either a conflict between different media sources reporting breed and/or a conflict between media and animal control reports relative to the reporting of breed. For 401 dogs described in various media accounts of DBRFs, media sources reported conflicting breed attributions for 124 of the dogs (30.9%); and where there were media reports and an animal control report (346 dogs), there were conflicting breed attributions for 139 dogs (40.2%)
According to this study, reliable verification of the breed of dog was only possible in 18% of incidents.
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Media reports of fatal dog attacks in the United States
This list of fatal dog attacks in the United States reported by the news media supplements those compiled from scholarly papers.
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