[PyrNet-L] ! Dogs bites 4.7 per year???????????

[clhenke@juno.com]

This was on another list, can it be posted to this one?  Interesting
stats, and something to think about, no matter how you feel!  Cindy.

Cindy Henke
clhenke@juno.com
Ennis, Texas

"All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained
in the dog."  ~ Franz Kafka

From: Chesyman@aol.com

The following is an article that is making its way around the web. Please

note what is being done in Nevada. Also of the supposed 4.7 million bites
per 
year, only 800,000 get medical treatment. Who is now lying to the
American 
public. Be careful of any statements made by the CDC as they have an
agenda 
to promote.

Gordon W. Anderson
Gordy the Chesyman



Dogs bite 4.7 million in nation each year
More than one-half of victims are kids
By Bruce Taylor Seeman 
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE 


March 19, 2000 

Perhaps Josiah Holden pestered his dog while it ate. Maybe he tripped
over 
its chain. Or accidentally stepped on a paw as the pair romped on the
freshly 
fallen snow.

Whatever ignited the dog's wrath, 5-year-old Josiah of suburban Cleveland

paid an awful price. On Feb. 18, he was mauled to death in his own yard.

Fatal dog attacks remain a rarity, each year killing about 15 Americans,
most 
often children, federal statistics show. But the incidents, according to
a 
growing chorus of experts, nonetheless represent the worst possible 
consequences of dog bites, a public health problem in full bloom.

The American Veterinary Medical Association, mindful that dogs nip,
pierce or 
rip the flesh of an estimated 4.7 million Americans each year, has
assembled 
a landmark task force to address the problem.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is embarking on a
new 
effort to count bites and to get a fuller picture of America's dog
population 
-- its size, breed distribution and gender proportions.

Increasing interest is aimed at Nevada, where public health officials say
dog 
bites are declining because school nurses are teaching first-graders that
not 
every dog is a cuddly friend.

But while those steps represent new efforts to measure and avoid the
threat 
posed by dogs, analysts have delivered an intimidating portrait of the 
problem:

 About 800,000 Americans seek medical treatment for dog bites each year, 
according to the CDC. Of those, about 40 percent go to emergency rooms.

 More than half the injured are children, a fact widely attributed to
kids' 
innate tendency to be impulsive, trusting or agitated. Because their
necks 
and faces are closer to the ground, kids get hurt worst.

 Dog bite victims are collecting about $250 million a year through
lawsuits. 
That doesn't include medical treatment, lost work and other costs
believed to 
raise the overall economic impact to about $1 billion.

 Solutions are elusive. Outlawing specific breeds is unrealistic, most 
experts agree, even if scientists could say which dogs bite most. Leash
laws 
and other local strategies are often inadequate or too costly to enforce.

A 10-year-old boy killed by Rottweilers in September in New Orleans was
the 
first dog-related death in that city in years, said Catherine Olivier, 
community affairs director of the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of

Cruelty to Animals. But the incident was among 405 bites reported to 
authorities in New Orleans last year.

"The attacks that are taking place are much more serious," Olivier said. 
"There was a little girl last year who was mauled by a pit bull in a 
relative's living room. About half of her face was ripped off. It was 
supposedly an unprovoked attack. But the dog's name was Satan. When you
have 
people who want pets like that, it gets frightening."

Dog bites don't top the public health agenda. While death by dog attack
is 
among the most horrible, such events are statistically insignificant
compared 
to other accidental deaths.

More attention is given, for example, to drownings, which kill about
4,000 
Americans annually, or to bicycle-related head injuries, which claim
about 
500, or to accidental poisonings, which claim about 100.

Until they're bitten or their child is bitten, experts say, most
Americans 
regard dog bites as a random and remote possibility, much like a broken
leg.

Meanwhile, the right to keep a dog, even one that has displayed a
dangerous 
temper, is often claimed with the same passion as maintaining private 
property or owning a hunting rifle.

"I'm from Texas," said Leslie Sinclair, a consultant and former director
of 
veterinary issues for companion animals at the Human Society of the
United 
States. "In Texas, you better not tell anyone they don't have a right to
have 
a dog in the back yard."

In truth, no one knows how many bites to blame on America's 60 million
dogs.

The number of bite-related deaths remains relatively constant at about 15
a 
year. Most often responsible, reports the CDC, are pit bulls,
Rottweilers, 
German shepherds, Alaskan malamutes, huskies, Doberman pinschers and chow

chows.

But the data on bites is less certain.

About 580,000 people sought medical treatment for bites in 1988,
according to 
the CDC. The agency's estimate rose to about 800,000 for 1994, the most 
recent figure available.

But many injuries get patched up over the bathroom sink rather than
mended by 
a physician. And when bites are properly treated, there is no universal 
requirement to report it.

Even the CDC's upcoming estimates on the dog population and bites will
fall 
short in some areas. It will not, for example, reveal which breeds are
most 
dangerous. Nor will it measure how many Americans are acquiring larger,
more 
aggressive dogs for protection.

Regardless, numerous experts are convinced bites are on the rise.

"It's a consistent upward trend, that's my guess," said Dr. Julie
Gilchrist, 
a CDC epidemiologist who is guiding the agency's upcoming effort to
estimate 
dog bites. "Unless it's a mauling, some tragedy, it doesn't make the
news."

Gilchrist and others believe more bites are occurring because more dogs
are 
being kept in an increasingly urbanized society.

"But there are two other important factors," she said. "First, our
reasons 
for having dogs have changed. It used to be the family pet, something to
play 
with. Now, dogs are more for protection. The dogs are bigger.

"The other thing is our time commitments are changing. People have two
jobs, 
they work 12 hours a day, they come home and want to lay on the couch.
The 
commitment to play with the dog, exercise the dog, supervise your
children 
with the dog, has changed."

In Nevada, public health officials claim dog bites are dropping because 
nurses are lecturing first-graders.

Ronald Anderson, veterinary diagnostician for the animal disease lab at
the 
Nevada Department of Agriculture, said he decided to tackle the problem 
because dog bite reports suggested the incidents were avoidable.

"They took the bowl away when the dog was eating, they jumped the dog
when it 
was sleeping, they pulled the dog's ear. This was the type of thing that
the 
kids were doing," Anderson said. "Silly stuff that shouldn't happen."

Under the education effort, children get a 40-minutes lesson on dog
behavior, 
watch a video and take home coloring books donated by an insurance
company.

In 1997, the program's first year, the state recorded 2,058 dog bites. In

1999, even after populations of both people and dogs increased more than
10 
percent, reported dog bites dropped to 1,948.

School nurse Gail Pickren, who teaches about 1,200 first-graders a year, 
comes to class in street clothes and carrying a pair of stuffed dogs.
"Kids 
tend to be sucked in when you have props," she said.

Pickren covers the basics: Why do dogs bite? How do you know if a dog is 
friendly? How do you avoid a bite? And what should you do if a dog
attacks?

"Stop and stand still," Pickren tells her pupils. "Cross your arms over
your 
chest and put your fists under your chin. Don't look at the dog. Don't
scream 
and run. If you get knocked down, get on your knees, bend over to protect

face and ears. If there's a car accessible or a tree, use it."

Insurance companies are following the issue closely.

MetLife Auto & Home, a Rhode Island-based insurer, red-flags any
applicant 
who has a dog with a history of aggression or one that fits the insurance

company's definition as a high-risk breed.

"The agent will say, 'OK, we'll take the application, but I will have to 
submit this to our home office, we want to take a closer look,' " said 
Richard Berstein, a vice president and general counsel for MetLife.
"We're 
just trying to exercise care. Frankly, if you have an aggressive dog with
a 
history of biting, no price will match the risk."

State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, which promotes dog bite safety, 
reported that payments for dog bites -- both medical and liability --
rose 
from $57 million in 1994 to $80 million in 1997.

The amount dropped to $76 million in 1998, and the company hopes a slight

drop in the number of claims will continue, said Dan Hattaway, an 
underwriting consultant.

But the size of a typical payout, Hattaway said, is rising. "We're seeing

more attorney involvement," he said. "The personal injury attorneys
didn't 
used to be so interested."

The costs of treating a dog bite can be high. Rather than merely piercing

flesh, an angry dog often bites the face, neck, arms or legs, clamps down
and 
violently shakes its prey.

In the worst cases, "the wounds tend to be large, with tearing and
ripping of 
tissues," said Dr. M. Douglas Baker, director of pediatric emergency
medicine 
at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital in Connecticut and a member of the
task 
force.

As with burns, infection is a concern. Multiple surgeries are common. A
CDC 
study estimated annual medical costs for dog bites to be about $165
million 
for emergency room visits and hospitalizations.





Copyright 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. 

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