The face is the most frequent target
Studies also have shown that:
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.
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. 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
In 2007, there were 33 fatal dog maulings in the USA.
They took place in 17 states. Ten deaths were in 4 one bite states, of which there are a total of 15. Eight deaths were in the three mixed dog bite statute states. Fifteen deaths were in 8 strict liability states, of which there are a total of 32 plus the District of Columbia.
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, which is roughly double the average in the prior two decades.
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.
